Raising Hare: A Memoir
Raising Hare: A Memoir
by Chloe Dalton
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About the Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • FINALIST FOR THE 2025 WOMEN’S PRIZE • A moving and fascinating meditation on freedom, trust, loss, and our relationship with the natural world, explored through the story of one woman’s unlikely friendship with a wild hare.
A BEST BOOK: The New York Times, The Economist, ELLE“
Moving. . . . Impart[s] valuable lessons about slowing down and the beauty in the unexpected.”—USA Today“
A philosophical masterpiece ruminating on our place as human beings in nature.”—Matt Haig, author of The Midnight Library“
A perfect testimony to the transformative power of love. In learning to love an orphaned hare, Chloe Dalton learned to love the whole wild world. The great gift of this remarkable book is the way it teaches us to do the same.”—Margaret Renkl, author of The Comfort of Crows
Imagine you could hold a baby hare and bottle-feed it. Imagine that it lived under your roof and bounded around your bedroom at night, drumming on the duvet cover when it wanted your attention. Imagine that, more than two years later, it still ran in from the fields when you called it and slept in your house for hours on end. For political advisor and speechwriter Chloe Dalton, who spent lockdown deep in the English countryside, far away from her usual busy London life, this became her unexpected reality.
In February 2021, Dalton stumbles upon a newborn hare—a leveret—that had been chased by a dog. Fearing for its life, she brings it home, only to discover how difficult it is to rear a wild hare, most of whom perish in captivity from either shock or starvation. Through trial and error, she learns to feed and care for the leveret with every intention of returning it to the wilderness. Instead, it becomes her constant companion, wandering the fields and woods at night and returning to Dalton’s house by day. Though Dalton feared that the hare would be preyed upon by foxes, weasels, feral cats, raptors, or even people, she never tried to restrict it to the house. Each time the hare leaves, Chloe knows she may never see it again. Yet she also understands that to confine it would be its own kind of death.
Raising Hare chronicles their journey together while also taking a deep dive into the lives and nature of hares, and the way they have been viewed historically in art, literature, and folklore. We witness firsthand the joy at this extraordinary relationship between human and animal, which serves as a reminder that the best things, and most beautiful experiences, arise when we least expect them.
About the Author
Chloe Dalton is a writer, political adviser and foreign policy specialist. She spent over a decade working in the UK Parliament and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and has advised, and written for and with, numerous prominent figures. She divides her time between London
and her home in the English countryside. Raising Hare is her first book.
Editorial Reviews
FINALIST for the 2025 Women’s Prize for Nonfiction
A BEST BOOK: One of The New York Times’ Best Books of the Year (So Far), One of The Economist’s Best Books of the Year So Far, One of Elle’s Best Books of the Spring, One of the Christian Science Monitor’s Best Books of March, LitHub’s #1 Best-Reviewed Nonfiction of the Month
One of Kirkus’s 20 Books You Won’t Believe Are Debuts
One of Kirkus’s 12 Nonfiction Books That Read Like Novels
“Dalton’s clear, measured prose and Denise Nestor’s delicate drawings provide . . . a bit of solace in a world that has now returned to an even more frenetic state. In Raising Hare, nature, indeed, takes its course.” —The New York Times
“Endearing and enlightening.” —The Washington Post
“In a troubled time, perhaps the greatest gift [Dalton] receives from the hare is a sense of peace. . . . Reading the book had much the same effect on me.” —Sigrid Nunez, The New Yorker
“Ms. Dalton has given us a portrait, both ephemeral and real, of a ‘creature of habit, set hours and favorite places, that walks so lightly on this earth, and that can be trusting on its own terms.’ She seems to share Hare’s traits of serenity, stillness and alertness to danger. It’s a testament to her skills of observation that the two reflect and enhance each other in unexpected, often remarkable ways.” —Wall Street Journal
“Moving. . . . Impart[s] valuable lessons about slowing down and the beauty in the unexpected.” —USA Today
“Part diary, part natural history, part field guide, this book is also an epic hero’s journey—where you set out on an ordinary day and stumble upon something that changes you forever.” —NPR
“[Dalton] provides us with a refreshing gift: a taste of fragility, grace, and trust in a world otherwise drunk on corruption and haste. If you’re in desperate need of a deep breath, this is the first book I’d recommend.” —ELLE
“Here Dalton finds and forges another kind of literary world: one in which the writer observes an animal, and herself, and the quiet yet profound love that grows between them.” —Boston Globe
“In times of great stress, people often find comfort in the natural world, sometimes by forging unexpected connections with wild creatures. This has resulted in a bounty of beautiful books, including Helen Macdonald’s H is for Hawk, Amy Tan’s The Backyard Bird Chronicles, and Catherine Raven’s Fox and I. . . . Raising Hare is a welcome addition to these stories of transformative, interspecies trust-building. . . . Dalton’s paean to her ‘wondrous,’ life-changing communion with this animal offers many exquisite moments.” —Christian Science Monitor
“Surprisingly moving[. Dalton] is an elegant writer and sharp-eyed observer.” —The Economist
“Moving. . . . Dalton’s affectionate attention to the hare ends up magnifying her attention to the world itself, deepening her love for it, changing how she relates to any one thing constellating the dazzling wholeness of everything. . . . An attention-annealing, life-deepening read.” —Maria Popova, The Marginalian
“A tender lesson in a different kind of love, one that starts from pity of a defenseless creature and radiates out to wonderment at the wider world.” —Spectrum Culture
“A reminder of the wonders of the natural world. . . . For Dalton, a creature famed for its swiftness taught her to slow down.” —KQED
“From the moment it started, I was both rapt and moved by this memoir of an overworked Londoner who saves and raises a leveret at her country home. . . . This carefully observed book made me very conscious of taking time to breathe and appreciate the world around me.” —Vulture, “5 Great Audiobooks to Listen to This Month”
“An unexpected experiment in coexistence. . . . Raising Hare is a plea for people to be gentler with other creatures, to grant them room to live.” —Associated Press
“Dalton writes with precision about what it means to care for a wild animal and how giving it freedom might promise its return. A great read for those who live a fast-paced life away from the natural world, but are eager to glean the lessons one can learn by slowing down.” —Paste
“An astounding debut memoir in which Dalton shows how a serene and long-misunderstood creature opened her eyes in many ways. It just might do the same for readers. . . . Soulful and gracefully written.” —Kirkus, starred review
“Magical, endearing. . . . Dalton’s memoir expands on the relatively little knowledge we have about this enchanting species, while also serving gentle commentary on the state of wildlife and the need to preserve their habitats. . . . A sweet and curious meditation on what we gain when we allow the natural world to teach us.” —BookPage, starred review
“Rescuers and animal lovers, this book is for you.” —Guam Daily Post
“Dalton makes her tale refreshingly unsentimental, delivering sharp insights about the value of trust, freedom, and respect for the natural world. It’s a delight.” —Publishers Weekly
“In her debut work, a soothing narrative rich with exquisite detail, Dalton enchants.” —Library Journal
“Delightful[, i]lluminating, intelligent, and warm, this is nature writing at its best.” —Booklist
“Written with tenderness and lyricism from someone who has taken the time to reconnect to nature and the wild within. A beautiful book.” —Angelina Jolie