H Is for Hawk

Macdonald intertwines bereavement and falconry while exploring the distance between a wild animal’s life and human emotional needs.

The memoir begins with the loss of Macdonald’s father and a disrupted sense of ordinary life.

Working with a goshawk demands attention to the bird’s behavior and needs.

The hawk’s apparent freedom becomes entangled with the narrator’s experience of grief.

T. H. White’s account of hawk training supplies a second, troubled literary thread.

Understanding Mabel requires noticing the difference between the bird and what the narrator hopes it represents.

This memoir does not prescribe falconry or nature contact as treatment for bereavement or depression.