Chloe Dalton is a British political advisor, writer, and foreign policy specialist. During Covid lockdown in England, she left London, retreating to her rural countryside home nestled between farms, encircled by an old stone wall. A former barn, Dalton had renovated the structure into a comfortable home, and continued her work via Zoom. When taking a walk one afternoon, she saw a man walking his dog, when the dog pursued an animal, and was called off by his owner. When Dalton approached the area, she found a day-old newborn hare in the middle of the path. Concerned that the baby would be taken by a predator, but equally worried that the mother would not find it if she intervened, Dalton resolved to continue her walk, and if the mother didn’t retrieve the baby, she would assist. After a couple of hours, the mother did not return, so Dalton brought the hare home.

A hare in its first year is called a leveret. Hares are not domesticated, while similar to rabbits, they are quite different in many respects. This memoir covers a three year period during Britain’s Covid lockdown and gradual return to normalcy, and the many ways this leveret, and later adult hare, changed Dalton’s lifestyle and perspective on her own life. Admittedly a workaholic, Dalton always gave her work primary place in her life; family, friends, and home distinctly second. The initial weeks and months of leveret care were a radical departure for Dalton, requiring constant vigilance, research, and consultation. Having a life depend exclusively upon her, but trying to intervene in a sensitive manner, always with a plan that the hare should comfortably return to the wild, was Dalton’s plan throughout. She never caged her, never trained with a litter box, always left doors open to the outdoors so the leveret could follow its instincts.

Dalton adapted her sleep patterns, and tried to move quietly, minimizing jarring noises that may startle the juvenile. We learn together with Dalton about the nature and habits of the hare, as Dalton became a careful, detailed observer, resisting the tendency of many to humanize the motives for the hare’s behavior. She was never under any delusions, but knew that this was a wild animal, and must comfortably live and return to the wild, with other hares. She learns that the hare is a female, having her first litter of leverets in Dalton’s garden. The second litter was birthed in Dalton’s office, which leads to some crazy stories of destruction as the male leveret is fairly rambunctious and destructive.

The memoir has a lovely sense of peacefulness, and renders the leverets’ behaviors as though they are resting in your room, and Dalton is quietly sharing these stories. The author becomes much more connected to the nature around her, in a way that she ignored before. She learns about the impact of our noisy, distracted, and light-polluted lifestyles, adapting more to the rhythms of the natural world around her. Covid was the needed removal from “normal” life Dalton needed, to re-center herself, and see what she was missing. I highly recommend this memoir, one of my favorite books this year, as it will help you to reassess your relationship with the natural world around you. Dalton’s openness to change and adaptation is a marvel, something for us all to consider.