Books Like Raising Hare

Helen Macdonald

Like Dalton, Macdonald trains a wild bird of prey while grieving, and she writes just as carefully about the gap between taming an animal and respecting what it is. Readers who valued the hare's independence will find the same honesty here.

Baker, J. A.

Baker spends years following peregrine falcons across the English landscape, watching them closely and obsessively. Its precise, intense observation of one wild creature mirrors the attentive quality that makes Raising Hare so absorbing.

Peter Matthiessen

Matthiessen's journey through Himalayan terrain is a meditation on looking for a rare animal and accepting that it may never be seen. Readers moved by Dalton's willingness to let her hare go will recognise the same reverence for wildness.

Annie Dillard

Dillard's year of close looking at one creek is full of startling, precise observation about the natural world. Readers who loved the way Raising Hare finds wonder in ordinary fields will appreciate its similar mix of patience and awe.

Katherine May

May reflects on rest, loss and renewal through the rhythms of the seasons, much as Dalton finds meaning in the hare's nightly wanderings. Its gentle, reflective tone suits readers drawn to Raising Hare's emotional restraint.

Amy Liptrot

Liptrot returns to the wild Orkney landscape of her childhood to heal, and her writing about land, weather and recovery is raw yet clear-eyed. Readers who connected with Dalton's themes of freedom and loss will find a similar intimacy with place.

Robert Macfarlane

Macfarlane explores how language shapes our sense of the landscape, with lyrical attention to the places and creatures that live in them. Readers who admired the English countryside in Raising Hare will enjoy his careful, poetic vision of nature.

Nan Shepherd, Jenny Odell

Shepherd's short, lyrical study of the Cairngorms is a patient, sensory exploration of one wild place over many years. Its unhurried attention and quiet wonder echo the slow, observant spirit of Raising Hare.

Rebecca Solnit

Solnit traces how walking has shaped culture, thought and freedom, which resonates with Dalton's sense that a wild creature must be free to roam. Readers interested in the meaning of movement and wildness will find much to think about.

Richard Adams, Richard Adams

Adams gives hares a rich inner world, showing their fears, loyalties and dangers in a vivid countryside. Readers curious about how hares have been imagined in fiction will find a classic that fills in the animal side of Dalton's story.

Edmund de Waal

De Waal follows a small family collection of netsuke carved as hares, tracing its history across generations. Readers who enjoyed Dalton's blend of memoir and cultural history will appreciate how he links an object to the wider story of people and places.

John Berger

Berger's short, influential essays examine how images shape the way we see the world and the things in it. Readers who liked how Raising Hare looks at the hare in art and folklore will find a sharp companion for thinking about how we view animals.