NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE 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 OF THE YEAR: The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, NPR, TIME, The Economist, Scientific American, Slate
"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."--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.
Named the 2025 Wainwright Prize Book of the Year
WINNER of the Wainwright Prize for Nature Writing
FINALIST for the 2025 Women's Prize for Nonfiction
Named a Best Book of the Year by The Wall Street Journal
One of Kirkus's 20 Books You Won't Believe Are Debuts
One of Kirkus's 12 Nonfiction Books That Read Like Novels
"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
"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
"This book tells a story of true friendship with great respect . . . If you love animals, this book is incredibly beautiful and moving and helped me see nature differently. I think it's the best non-fiction book of the year." --Elizabeth Gilbert
"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
"A gifted writer, [Dalton] describes the hare in great detail and with great tenderness, clearly a product of observing it very closely. . . . [They] enter into a dreamlike companionship so nourishing to Dalton that she almost doesn't care when the hare chews through both her router and TV cables. That's love." --Laura Miller, Slate
"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"
"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
"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
"Makes you think profoundly about how we so often tune out the natural world around us. Chloe Dalton is a tender, curious, wise, mind-expanding guide, connecting readers with the wild we humans once knew so well. I will be recommending this to everyone." --Matt Haig, author of The Midnight Library
" Raising Hare is an astounding achievement. Not since I read Salar the Salmon by Henry Williamson have I witnessed such insight into a creature of the wild. This is a great and important tale for our times, for all of us, in the same league as Ted Hughes, Alice Oswald, Thomas Hardy, and indeed Henry Williamson himself. I am so pleased Chloe Dalton told us about raising hare. I will not forget it and nor will anyone who reads it." --Michael Morpurgo, author of War Horse
"This book is exceptional. It made me smile out loud, such a magical tale of a world turned upside down by a fragile wild thing--a leveret lost, a life found. A simply wonderful story, profoundly beautiful." --Chris Packham, conservationist, wildlife filmmaker, and host of the BBC's BAAFTA Award-winning Springwatch, Autumnwatch and Winterwatch series
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.
Vintage
Pub Date: February 24, 2026
0.63" H x 8.0" L x 5.19" W
320 pages
paperback