Helen Macdonald's new book, H Is for Hawk (Grove Press), is her account of working through her grief over her father's death by adopting and training a goshawk. Part essay, part nature journal, all prose, Macdonald talks about being a teen with bird posters on walls instead of rock stars. She also describes trying to write in a manner that might capture how a bird flies – short, staccato sentences. She reveals that writing the sections about her father were very difficult, while the bird passages came easily.
Photo: Marzena Pogorzaly