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

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

“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

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!

Wonderful Story

I wasn’t sure about reading this book, but I wasn’t more than a few minutes in before I was enjoying it immensely. The author develops her relationship with the hare over the course of the book, including how the relationship changed her outlook on her own life.

Empathy deserved and well rewarded. Needed this now!

I loved this uplifting, nonfictional experience of a caring woman who discovered an abandoned leveret/baby hare in her UK backyard garden, and possessed enough compassion to rescue for its entire life. Hare came in or out of rescuer's home as pleased. She enjoyed a richer, fuller life leaping about house, garden, wild fields and sleeping near fire nightly, as did her progeny. Read/listen many nature and wildlife books. Definitely will enjoy this fave again. Narration perfect; loved her accent, pacing. More like this please!

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.

the reflection of herself

great story. the narrator did a great job reading narrating. I learned many facts about hares

Animal Deep Dive

While there is something obsessive about the author's care of wild hares, there is also plenty reflection and self awareness. I learned a lot about hares, but that's not the point. The point is more about how to relate to the really real world - the one with plants and animals and sanity. Another one like this is "H is for Hawk." Looking for more like these.

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!