I don’t often read memoirs, much less wildlife books, but when I heard that this book was about dealing with grief by raising a hawk, I was intrigued. I remained intrigued intermittently as I read, most enjoying (to my surprise) the specifics about the hawk. I kept waiting for the grief-handling part to resonate – how raising Mabel helped Macdonald come to terms with her father’s death – and it never did. But the writing is excellent. And I did love reading about Mabel.