Raising hare A memoir

On a particularly cold January morning near her rural British home, Dalton came across a leveret--a very young hare. Distant from her demanding job as a political adviser due to COVID-19 restrictions, she chose to save the animal. As she recounts in this delightful record that includes hare-related references from literature, mythology, and history, the leveret proves to be far more than a distraction. While Dalton steadfastly resisted the temptation to make it a pet, never giving it a name and allowing it to leave her home and garden as it got older, a bond was nevertheless formed, and the animal regularly returned, later bringing its offspring along. As she became more beguiled by the hare's antics, Dalton researched the animal and was shocked by how little it is studied, how avidly it is hunted (it's legal to kill hares in Britain, even ones that are pregnant), and how brutally the species has been targeted, as in the so-called rabbit drives of the early twentieth century. Illuminating, intelligent, and warm, this is nature writing at its best.

Dalton, a British speech writer and political consultant, debuts with a tender account of rescuing and rearing a wild hare in the English countryside. After discovering the animal frozen in fear on the side of the road in winter 2021, Dalton scooped it up and took it home with her. Despite some initial hesitation--who was she to interfere with nature, Dalton wondered--she nursed the animal back to health and gave it free run of her house and garden. Electing not to name the creature, Dalton simply observed its behavior, sometimes following it outside for long walks that reacquainted her with the flora and fauna in her backyard. The more freedom she gave the hare, the greater the trust between them grew. More than a year later, it gave birth to a litter of leverets in the author's presence, much to her wonder and delight. Though she's working with well-worn tropes, 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. (Mar.)

Made more humane by a hare. A political adviser whose demanding work often had her leaving England, Dalton spent much of the Covid-19 pandemic at her converted barn in the countryside. Out for a walk one February day, she spotted a creature in the middle of an unpaved path. "Leveret," she writes. "The word surfaced in my mind, even though I had never seen a young hare before." Hours later, she returned to the spot and found that the russet-colored animal hadn't moved, defenseless against predators and cars. Unsure of what to do, Dalton carefully picked up the animal and brought it home. Thus begins 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. The leveret--a diminutive of the French word for hare,lièvre--is a fluff ball that fits in her palm, lighter than an apple. When Dalton feeds it, "its tiny ivory-coloured paws would…knead the air in a trembling, milky ecstasy." Not knowing how to care for the animal--unlike rabbits, a smaller species, hares haven't been domesticated--Dalton educates herself. The books she reads say much about hunting and cooking hares, but little else. To the rescue comes an 18th-century poem by William Cowper that cites the food that "little one" comes to devour: oats. Those oats (and pears) help the hare quickly grow to its full size, a lean and lively "miniature bucking bronco" that, when not "unmoving as a sphinx," loves to dance about the house. What becomes of the animal in a land where hares' numbers have drastically declined? No secrets will be spilled here. But Dalton herself is changed, calmed by an endearing creature that, as she writes, "challenged my priorities and woke up my senses." A soulful and gracefully written book about an animal's power to rekindle curiosity. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.