‘Raising Hare’ Review: Author Chloe Dalton Rescues a Leveret

Sidelined from her fast-paced career requiring international travel during the pandemic, Author Chloe Dalton retreats to her English country house. After encountering a leveret (a baby hare) that has been abandoned by its mother, Dalton overcomes her conflict about whether it is right for her to intrude on nature and decides to try to care for it. Having no experience with wild animals, she contacts people who are apparent experts on wild and domestic animals, including her sister and a conservationist/former gamekeeper. Dalton is determined to treat the leveret as a wild animal, not a pet, as it grows into a hare. She avoids giving it a name and extends Herculean efforts to offer it the necessary freedom to be able to return to the wild.

Over the course of her developing relationship with the hare, Dalton learns that many traits and behaviors deemed characteristic of hares contradict with her experiences and observations. She leans increasingly on intuition and her close connection with the hare to decide how to care for it and help it live a normal life. Dalton’s approach to life and career evolve as her relationship with the leveret — and eventually her offspring — deepens.

‘Raising Hare’ Summary: What the Promotional Copy Misses

“Raising Hare” is a memoir in which the author describes her experiences raising a leveret and living closely with it from the day she encounters it up until the hare is a three-year old adult.

Dalton doesn’t merely mention how hares are “viewed in literature,” as described in the Amazon book blurb. She exposes in glorious color how hares are stereotyped and misunderstood in published literature, including Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night,” Pliny the Elder’s “Natural History,” Lewis Caroll’s “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland,” Mark Twain’s “Roughing It,” Demosthenes speech, “On the Crown” and Aesop’s fable, “The Hare and the Frogs.” She also points out that hares and rabbits are unique species, a fact many people don’t know.

Promotional copy also fails to mention how the author repeatedly finds that specialists’ recommendations are less successful than her own intuition.

“Raising Hare” is a somewhat ironic title because the author makes every effort to avoid treating the leveret like a pet and to allow the growing hare to experience a normal life of freedom in the wild.

Books Like ‘Raising Hare’

The following books focus on an author or main character who experiences a connection to wild animals. Many of these works open the eyes of the reader to the horrific human destruction inflicted on animal populations.

• “The Elephant Whisperer: My Life with the Herd in the African Wild” by Lawrence Anthony and Graham Spence describes the author’s relationship with a group of elephants he rescued that became part of his family.
• “Wild Dark Shore” by Charlotte McConaghy explores a world devastated by climate change, taking place on a South Pacific island where humans often slaughtered populations of animals.
• “Swimming with Dolphins” by Susan Dawson-Cook describes the author’s developing relationship with a pod of wild dolphins in San Carlos, Mexico.
• “Born Free: A Lioness of Two Worlds” by Joy Adamson was a childhood favorite of mine, describing the author’s experience with a lioness cub transitioning from captivity to the wild.

Audience and Genre: A Book for Nature Lovers

People of all generations and races who value and appreciate animals and nature will connect to “Raising Hare.” Readers curious to know what it would be like to have a close relationship with a wild animal will also be drawn to the book.

The reader must have the patience and interest to follow Dalton’s tale, which includes many vivid descriptions of the hare’s appearance and scenes about how it behaves and interacts with her and the natural world.

“Raising Hare” will also appeal to readers concerned with human devastation on wild animal populations. Dalton mourns the damage humans have inflicted on hare populations. She explains that Britain has lost 80% of its hare populations in the last century. Farming has caused the most destruction, with hunting falling in a close second.

“They are routinely crushed or cut to shreds by agricultural machinery,” Dalton said. “One study of hares found, in a single breeding season, a 50% mortality rate among leverets in their first twenty-eight days.”

“Hundreds of thousands of hares are still shot each year in Britain for recreation and millions in Europe as a whole, with customers often paying large sums for the pleasure. In Britain, inexplicably, hares are the only game species not protected by a closed hunting season, meaning they can be killed when pregnant and lactating.”

“Raising Hare” is a unique read, written from a perspective a very limited number of humans will ever be able to write about: living close to a wild animal that is free to come and go as it pleases.

Readers who love nature and feel or crave a connection with wild animals will enjoy “Raising Hare” the most. People who have little appreciation for nature or who would find details about a wild animal’s life tedious to read will likely find it cumbersome.

Three Cs: Compelling, Clear, Concise

Editorial Note: We believe these three factors are important for evaluating general writing quality across every aspect of the book. Before you get into further analysis, here’s a quick breakdown to clarify how we’re using these words:

• Compelling: Does the author consistently write in a way that would make most readers emotionally invested in the book’s content?
• Clear: Are most sentences and parts of the book easy enough to read and understand?
• Concise: Are there sections or many sentences that could be cut? Does the book have pacing problems?

“Raising Hare” is a compelling read for anyone fascinated by nature and wild animals. It isn’t a fast-paced read. But it’s captivating to a reader interested in getting a close look at what it’s like to interact with, care for and live with a wild animal. The author describes the leveret’s changing appearance, her offspring, and the sounds and gestures the hares make in a way that helps the reader experience the tenderness and preciousness of each moment. The author’s desire to understand the leveret and its wants and needs and the growing connection between the two makes for heartwarming reading.

Occasionally, the author entertains the reader with humorous stories about cohabiting with a hare and, later, the hare and her young. “I was quite keen to be able to turn on the shower without having to check first if there was a leveret asleep in it.”

Leverets chew on curtains, disturb Dalton’s sleep, and rip the stuffing out of her couch. Dalton alters her lifestyle and work habits to avoid causing too much noise and disruption to the leverets. Dalton seems endlessly tolerant of this disruption and shifting her lifestyle for the sake of their needs.
Sentences tend to be long, descriptive and complex. As an American, I occasionally struggled with British English.

“Raising Hare” will appeal to readers interested in knowing every detail about living with and caring for a wild animal. Many questions a curious nature lover might have are answered in this book. What did the leveret look like? How did its appearance change with the season and as it aged? What did an average day in the life of the hare look like? How did the hare behave and interact with Dalton? I found this fascinating to read, but some readers might not agree. This book appeals to a particular audience. A reader will know within the first 20 pages if they fit this category.

Compelling: Sympathy for Leverets and the Author’s Dedication

“Raising Hare” educates readers on the struggles wild creatures face living in a world dominated by humans. It also illuminates how wild creatures may be misunderstood and how they are inaccurately stereotyped in literature. Readers may become more concerned about the effects of farming on hare populations and less inclined to think of hares as food or small animals that don’t matter.

Vivid descriptions and the author’s emotional reactions to the leveret and its stages living with her through adulthood will grab the attention of nature-loving readers.

Readers will likely feel empathy for the young hare, separated from her mother, and the author, who is a high-powered business executive, completely clueless about wild animals, yet caring enough to rescue the vulnerable leveret. Readers may feel saddened to read about declining hare populations and how these wild animals are often killed in large numbers by hunters and farmers.

Clear: American Readers Might Struggle With British English

Sentences are often long and descriptive. Some readers may consider some sections “information dumping.” Dalton’s sentences are all full of imagery and rich description. They are written in a unique way that is compelling for any reader desiring an up-close view of the hare’s life and the unusual relationship between the hare and the author.

“Raising Hare” is professionally edited and expertly written. The overall message is clear. I found no typos in the book.

I wouldn’t describe words used in the books as “fancy,” although there are many words and phrases unique to British English. I had to read some sentences more than once to fully appreciate them.

Concise: Lengthy Descriptions, But the Right Audience Will Be Hooked

I wouldn’t recommend that Dalton remove any content from the “Raising Hare” text. Although this book is full of details, they contribute to the reader’s understanding of the leveret and the author’s relationship with her. The history of hares in the literature also adds a balance to the story and gives readers perspective on how wild animals are commonly anthropomorphized and misunderstood.

“Raising Hare” isn’t intended to be a riveting read. It is a thoughtful portrayal of the author’s experiences and observations along with wisdom she gained during the experience.

Character Development: Cast of Author, Hare and Leverets

The author and the leveret are the main characters, with some of the hare’s young appearing later in the memoir. The reader gets a great deal of insight into the author’s evolution during the experience and into the lives of the hare and her young. There are touching vignettes about their behavior and development and the evolution of the hare-human relationship.

The leveret, who grows into a hare, and her offspring, are developed through description, new experiences and character interactions. Readers see how the hare interacts with the author and with her young, and how the hare behaves in her home and outside in the garden.
The author makes every effort not to project human emotions onto the hares. She makes astute observations and occasionally draws conclusions about their behavior and ways of living that seem sound based on the countless hours she’s spent around the hares.

Story: Author’s Unique, Magical Experience

“Raising Hare” is the kind of book to read outside in the backyard, while listening to birds sing. I enjoyed leisurely reading the book, soaking up this magical experience. I felt so connected to the author and her cast of hare characters, that I didn’t want the book to end.

Dalton had an experience few humans will ever have: living closely with wild hares and having years to interact with them and understand them better.

The book’s ending was satisfying, reiterating what the experience meant to the author’s outlook on life and acknowledging that the hare is a wild being that should not be treated like a domestic animal or restricted or tamed.

Prose Style: Vivid Descriptions and Astute Observations

The author’s style is descriptive and multisensory. It is nature writing at its finest. I have never read descriptions of a wild animal that show so much depth in the relationship and such astute observations.

Dalton recognizes the leveret’s moods, every sound it makes, every subtle shift in its appearance. She changes her entire lifestyle to accommodate their life together. She learns it dislikes or distrusts men: “it would bolt the moment any man set foot in the house.” Giving away a couch that’s seen better days upsets the leveret, so the old couch is returned to the house.

The author watches the leveret grow up and recover from an injury. Dalton learns that the hare is female when it returns to her house, after an absence of days, with her young. “I watched the hare feed, protect and discipline her leverets. In the early morning light, they played in the flower bed amid the lavender and the roses, tumbling over each other and delicately nibbling at the flowers.” Later in the book, the hare gives birth in Dalton’s house!

“Raising Hare” is rife with action scenes where Dalton observes or interacts with the hare. Dalton effectively shifts into telling mode when sharing a stereotype about hares in literature, unchecked human devastations inflicted on their populations, or work travel descriptions.

The sentences and paragraphs below offer previews of the author’s writing style and skills. Sentences tend to be long, descriptive and bring the reader on the scene with her as the story unfolds.

Dalton observes noises the leveret makes. “The chit-chit noise of its younger days was no longer a constant accompaniment as it explored the house. But it would often produce a strange musical call as it ran away from me after feeding. Louder than a puff, sharper than a sigh, softer than a grunt and more musical than a snort, the sound eluded description. It was like the faintest note the gentlest breath on a harmonica could produce: a short, sharp exhalation compressed over I did not know what, since I’d read that hares lack vocal chords. Each day brought new aspects of the growing leveret’s behaviour at which to marvel, and I found myself drawn, against my previous interests and inclinations, into the desire to discover everything I could about it.”

The author draws a conclusion on peoples’ abysmal attempts to characterize the hare (even imagining them to be mad or a witch in animal form). “Maybe the hare’s dubious reputation, I thought, has less to do with the hare itself than our habit as humans of persecuting the things that we do not understand, and our own conflicted natures.”

Dalton describes the leveret’s eating habits in a way that shows her astute observation skills. “It adored clover and would bury itself in the deepest patches, until only the tips of its ears could be seen, foraging freely for the plants it had spurned when I cut them, preferring to crop them fresh from the ground.”

The author witnesses the leveret venturing outside the safety of her garden. “The leveret nosed the stone beneath it, its eyes gauging the drop to the ground below, and the dizzying vista of fields and woods beyond. I did not move or call out to it. I hardly breathed. One moment it was there, looking straight at me. The next, its place on the wall was empty. It had dropped down to the other side. I walked to the gate and looked over just in time to see it canter leisurely down the track, away from the house and into the fields. For a few moments I could see its outline clearly, then it faded into the landscape, adopting the hare’s cloak of invisibility.”

Dalton expresses the conflict she felt in trying to support the leveret. “I pondered the concept of ‘owning’ a living creature in any context. Interaction with animals nurtures the loving, empathetic, compassionate aspect of human nature. It taps into a primordial reverence towards the living world and a sense of commonality and connectedness across species. It is a gateway, as I was discovering, into a state of greater respect for nature and the environment as a whole. But at the same time, there is an immense power imbalance. We all too easily subordinate animals to our will, constraining or confining them to suit our purposes, needs, and lifestyles.”

Dalton speaks of her better understanding of nature through this experience. “I felt a new spirit of attentiveness to nature, no less wonderful for being entirely unoriginal, for as old as it is as a human experience, it was new to me. For many years, the seasons had largely passed me by, my perceptions of the steady cycle of nature disrupted by travel and urban life. I had observed nature in broad brushstrokes, in primary colors, at a surface level. I had been most interested in whether it was dry enough to walk, or warm enough to eat outside with friends. I could identify only a handful of birds and trees by name. I hadn’t observed the buds unfurling, the seasonal passage of birds, the unshakeable rituals and rhythms of life in a single field or wood.”

The author uses juxtaposition to show how hares are depicted in literature and perceived by most humans against her observations, which are strikingly different, and seem infinitely more astute. Metaphors bring the author’s vivid nature descriptions to life.

The hare appears as the central symbol of the book. “The hare lends itself as a symbol of the transience of life and its fleeting glory, and our dependency on nature and our careless destruction of it,” said Dalton.

Antithesis appears as the hare lives a free life but still cherishes domestic moments, cozying up in the author’s home. And the author seems in conflict over whether to return to constant work travel or to savor more reflective time closer to home.

Observation is a technique Dalton uses that helps the reader live the author’s experiences and better understand the leveret as a wild creature. Below are two examples.

“The lateral position of a hare’s eyes gives them a nearly 360-degree field of vision.” “…everything I saw suggested to me that hares run for pleasure, and that to live a caged life would cause them intense suffering.”

The thoughtfulness of the writing led me to believe the author is very caring and compassionate and has learned to deeply experience life and appreciate its special moments.

Setting: The English Countryside Where Nature Thrives and Struggles

The setting for “Raising Hare” is the author’s converted barn home in some unspecified place in the English countryside. The author dedicates a great deal of space to describing in vivid detail the different flora and fauna and the different seasons and times of day in a way that the reader comes to feel at home in the author’s home and garden spaces. She also describes the threats to leverets, including predators and human activity, particularly farming.

Rhetoric: The Misunderstood Hare

The author wants readers to understand how animals are undervalued and misunderstood by humans. Even so-called experts offered recommendations that didn’t work. Intuition and trying to gauge how the animal was feeling or reacting to a situation guided Dalton the most.

Often the narrative delves into the vulnerability of wild creatures, and the horrors man inflicts on wild creatures and the natural world. Dalton’s messages come across clearly and effectively and feel suitable for the story. Dalton incites reader empathy for not only the hares known to the author, but the overall hare population and all of nature’s creatures.

Cultural and Political Significance: We Need to Connect With Nature to Save Our Planet

Human activity on our planet has been blamed for a warming climate and mass extinctions, making “Raising Hare” especially relevant today. People need to feel connected to nature to care about it. We often don’t because we spend many of our days indoors and on electronic devices. Dalton’s memoir brings readers up close to the author’s experiences, helping them better understand and empathize with the natural world.

“Raising Hare” will continue to have relevance as long as hares exist in this world. People have been fascinated by wild creatures for decades. Many humans long to be able to understand and connect better with animals.

Dalton’s memoir will resonate more with readers who care about nature and feel that making sacrifices to save it is worth the effort. People might also relate to the story of going away from normal routines during the lockdown era of the early 2020s.

Authenticity: Honest Writing

Dalton is a reliable and honest narrator. She immerses herself in caring for the hare, asking for advice from animal experts and her sister, who lives on a farm. Dalton’s days revolve around caring for the leveret. She checks out books on hares to better understand what to feed it and how to care for it. This educational journey is the focus of the story, really; Dalton and the hare living together and her trying to find a way to help it thrive as a wild creature.

Critiquing the Critics: Legacy Media and Consumer Praise, and a Few Accusations of Being Boring

“Raising Hare” was a New York Times bestseller and a finalist for the 2025 Women’s Prize for Nonfiction. Most critics and consumer reviews praised the book. Insightful, descriptive, beautiful, and even soothing are adjectives used in critic reviews. “Raising Hare” appeared on a 2025 New York Times best books of the year list. Most reviewers praised the descriptive writing, and the depth of the connection apparent between the author and the leveret. Readers often liked how the writing touched the heart without coming across as overly sentimental.

Amazon reviewer Ruby Qui Qui gave “Raising Hare” a five-star review: “Some of the details about hares were a bit more than I needed to know, but the story itself is enchanting. The author’s descriptions of the natural surroundings are evocative and beautifully written,” she said.

Several consumers dubbed “Raising Hare” boring. This argument feels unfair because it wasn’t intended to be a page turner. It was intended to help readers experience the deep connection Dalton felt with the hare and her offspring. I think lack of interest in the subject — or the natural world in general — made the book seem dull to them.

More than one review accused the author of treating the hare as a “thing” because she never named it. This argument also seemed unjust because the author didn’t know the sex of the hare until she gave birth to babies and she didn’t want to treat it like a pet. Dalton worked hard to respect the hare’s wild animal status.

Book Aesthetic: A Simple Photo of the Leveret

A close-up view of a leveret or young hare appears on the “Raising Hare” cover, making it clear to the reader the focus of the memoir. Because the author dedicates a lot of space to describing the growing leveret’s appearance throughout the work, this close-up view feels especially fitting. Sketches of leverets in various positions and postures appear at the beginning and often the end of the book chapters. Denise Nestor’s illustrations on the cover and throughout the book are very detailed and parallel the close observations Dalton makes about the hare’s appearance throughout the book.

The close-up view of the hare is juxtaposed with commercial aspects. The top line of the cover reads “New York Times Bestseller” and quotes from Angelina Jolie and Matt Haig also appear on the front cover. Eight more quotes are pasted on the back cover. The name of the publisher, along with the book title and author name, are printed on the spine.

The hare’s appearance on the cover indicates that the book revolves around a hare. The word “memoir” also appears on the cover, making it clear that the book is the author’s story. The cover is a perfect blend of the creative and the commercial. Quotes chosen include blurbs written by a conservationist and three nature writers.

Reviewer’s Personal Opinion: Immerse Yourself in the Beauty and Grace of this Wild Creature

‘Finding Hare’ resonated with me on multiple levels. Although I have never had a relationship with a wild animal anywhere close to as deep as Dalton’s, I have always felt connected to the natural world. As a young girl, I often wandered down to the Olentangy River in Ohio to look for frogs. I found them fascinating and couldn’t stop reading about them in the World Book Encyclopedias we had at home. I especially enjoyed studying them in the spring during breeding season, when I’d watch thousands of tadpoles in the ponds begin to sprout legs and gradually morph into frogs. Over the years, I earned degrees in geology and became an avid outdoor adventurer and open water swimmer. I volunteer for a sea turtle rescue group in Mexico and often am gifted with visits from a friendly pod of wild dolphins who I’ve come to know during my daily Sea of Cortez swims.

What disturbed me about this book was reading about how humans ruthlessly kill hares. Even the unintentional deaths from farming equipment upset me because it shows that when new technology is introduced, that only money and productivity are considered, never the residual damage. The thoughtlessness and selfishness of humans disturb me deeply.

The leveret is my favorite character with the author being a close second. It is fascinating to read about the hare’s life and the author’s transformation over the course of their three-year relationship together.

Dalton bends her life for the sake of the hare. Perhaps she is inviting readers to consider how they could adjust their own lives in a way that might be less convenient yet facilitate the survival of the natural world.

The books I most enjoyed that have parallels to the touching wild animal experiences shared in Dalton’s memoir are “The Elephant Whisperer’ and “Born Free: A Lioness of Two Worlds.” Lawrence Anthony takes custody of a herd of elephants in Zululand and comes to understand them. Joy Adamson shares her experiences helping a lioness cub return to the wild in “Born Free,” a book originally published in 1960 and one of my all-time favorites as a child.

I do not know Chloe Dalton. This book appeared on a recommended reading list in The Christian Science Monitor. I found the description interesting and checked it out on my library app.

I wanted to review “Finding Hare” because reading it was a life-changing experience for me. Although I already care about and appreciate nature, this book expanded my view and opened the possibilities that I might one day have an experience where I would deeply understand a wild animal. I also wanted to share the book with others because I would like to see more people learn to appreciate and value nature.

Conclusion: Checks Every Box

“Raising Hare” checked all my boxes for what I expect from a memoir and nature writing. It includes rich descriptions that bring the reader to Dalton’s country home and bring the hare to life, astute observations about the hare’s behavior that help the reader to understand her and her young, and wisdom shared by the author on how this experience transformed her views and her approach to life. “She [the leveret] showed me a different life, and the richness of it.”

Buying and Rental Options

E-Commerce Text and Audio Purchases

• Amazon
• Barnes & Noble
• Kobo
• Apple Books
• Google Play

E-Commerce Audio Only

• Audible
• Libro.fm

Physical Location Purchase and Rental Options

“Raising Hare” is available at most Barnes & Noble locations and independent bookstores. It is also available in most public libraries.

Digital Rental Options

E-book and audio book copies of “Raising Hare” are available for check-out on the Libby app. For the Tucson libraries, the current wait time for both editions is several weeks. Occasionally, the app offers a “skip the line” copy to readers.