Raising Hare

A Memoir

De: Chloe Dalton

Narrado por: Louise Brealey

Short-listed, Women's Prize for Non-Fiction, 2025

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.

Imagine you could hold a baby hare and bottle-feed it. Imagine that it lived under your roof and lolloped around your bedroom at night, drumming on the duvet cover when it wanted your attention. Imagine that, over two years later, it still ran in from the fields when you called it and slept in your house for hours on end and gave birth to leverets in your study. 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 impossible 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, stoats, feral cats, raptors, and 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 first-hand 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.

*This audiobook includes a bonus conversation between the author and narrator, available in audio only.

“A beautiful book that 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

©2025 Chloe Dalton (P)2025 Random House Audio

Reseñas de la Crítica

LitHub’s #1 Best-Reviewed Nonfiction of the Month

One of the Christian Science Monitor’s Best Books of March

One of Kirkus's 20 Books You Won't Believe Are Debuts

“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

“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

Awe inspiring read!

The author describes in exciting graphic detail this very magical story. The Reader, was a a perfect match for this book, lovely voice and very connected to the words.

Truly touching

An incredibly special and moving book. It is beautifully written and read and warmed my heart.

Heartwarming

Loved hearing this amazing story! Highly recommend! So nice to hear a story of warmth and comfort, during these troubled times.

Profound respect for nature and keen observational skill

The author writes beautifully of her experience with hares. It’s such a serene, quiet tale, yet one can’t wait for the next day, and the next. There is much to learn here, as you take the journey with the author, about hares in particular, and about the effects of people on the natural world. I wanted to stay in that countryside for longer! It inspires me to sharpen my powers of observation, to slow down and notice the small things. I will revisit this book. It calmed me to listen to it read on the audiobook!

The narration is ever bit as sensitve as the story

This story really hit home for me. I share her wanting to help but only enough to get the hare back to it's natural environs. That they formed an interface of trust was so moving it still makes me cry. The plight of all animals is brought to bear on the conscience of all who impose themselves on the world. There is no them or us...we are all in this together.

Be still my heart

Such a special joy to read. Please read this beautiful book. It is surprising and delightful. It will change how you think about hares and beyond.

Great story, Great listen!

Anyone who has been fortunate enough to connect deeply with animals will thoroughly enjoy this memoir. I’m speaking not only on ‘as a pet’ level but that deeper connectivity that most humans won’t experience in their life. Those unfortunates will have missed such a joyful part of life.

I thank the author for her humaneness, as well as the reader for her talent.

Sweet Story

I really enjoyed this hare story because I live in southern New England and I’m only familiar with Cottontail rabbits. I love the historical quotes and Chloe’s details about living with hares. And the narration was hypnotic. What a wonderful memoir!

Personal and heart-warming

This book is a wonderful listen, with a fabulous narrator who brings the author's thoughts and cares to the forefront. This is a story based on the author's personal experience living in the country in Britain and sharing her home with a hare and later with the hare's offspring. I thoroughly enjoyed the book and really appreciated the author's challenges and controversies she encounters in making choices to live her life with the hare. Highly recommend.

An intimate encounter with nature.

The author’s sensitivity to the hare and by extension the nature around her. The reader can almost smell and hear the fields and garden. It felt quintessentially English.