NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK • NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • FINALIST FOR THE 2025 WOMEN'S PRIZE • A 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 Boston Globe, The Economist, Scientific American, Slate “Moving. . . . Impart[s] valuable lessons about slowing down and the beauty in the unexpected.” —USA Today “ 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 “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 “In a troubled time, perhaps the greatest gift [Dalton] receives from the hare is a sense of peace. . . . Reading the book had much the same effect on me.”­ —Sigrid Nunez, The New Yorker “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 “Moving. . . . Impart[s] valuable lessons about slowing down and the beauty in the unexpected.” —USA Today “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 “[Dalton] provides us with a refreshing gift: a taste of fragility, grace, and trust in a world otherwise drunk on corruption and haste. If you’re in desperate need of a deep breath, this is the first book I’d recommend.” —ELLE “Clear-eyed and never overly sentimental, Dalton offers a deep meditation on what it means to connect with the natural world.” —TIME “Here Dalton finds and forges another kind of literary world: one in which the writer observes an animal, and herself, and the quiet yet profound love that grows between them.”­— Boston Globe “Features soulful nature writing combined with a deep reverence for the wild things that ignite our curiosity and joy. . . . An extraordinarily thoughtful memoir.” — The Seattle Times “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 “Marvelous.” —Rebecca Solnit, Longreads “In times of great stress, people often find co