Helen's Goshawk
About This Novel
Helen Macdonald determined to become a falconer as a child. She learned an entire vocabulary of falconry and read all the classic falconry books. In 2007, when she was deeply in grief due to the sudden death of her father, Helen came up with the idea of taming her own goshawk to get rid of her grief. She bought Mabel on the dockside in Scotland, took her back to her home in Cambridge, and began a long and bizarre journey: training the most unruly goshawk in the animal world. The author turns his longing for his father and his love for falcons into words, and tells with great sincerity the arduous journey of taming the goshawk and rescuing himself from the grief of losing a loved one. Helen's story of taming the most ferocious birds of prey quickly captured the hearts of millions of readers around the world. Mabel is fierce and unruly, like a mirror reflecting Helen's sadness after losing her father. Together, the two of them, raptor and human, "explore the pain and beauty of being alive." "Helen's Goshawk" is about how to reconcile death, life and love. It combines memory, nature, humanities, biography and history. It is a strange book that is difficult to classify, written by a unique and outstanding author. Once published, the book immediately appeared on the New York Times bestseller list and became a sensation. It frequently appeared in other major lists and was well received by the media. It was also named the Samuel Johnson Award for Best Biography and the Costa Book Award for the British Cross-Genre Book of the Year.
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