Essays & Correspondence
![Helen Macdonald - [object Object] author](https://res.cloudinary.com/readsomnia/image/upload/authors/a_B001K8BSNO.jpg)
Vesper Flights
From the New York Times bestselling author of H is for Hawk and winner of the Samuel Johnson Prize for nonfiction, comes a transcendent collection of essays about the human relationship to the natural world.
Animals don't exist in order to teach us things, but that is what they have always done, and most of what they teach us is what we think we know about ourselves.
In Vesper Flights, Helen Macdonald brings together a collection of her best loved essays, along with new pieces on topics ranging from nostalgia for a vanishing countryside to the tribulations of farming ostriches to her own private vespers while trying to fall asleep.
Meditating on notions of captivity and freedom, immigration and flight, Helen invites us into her most intimate experiences: observing the massive migration of songbirds from the top of the Empire State Building, watching tens of thousands of cranes in Hungary, seeking the last golden orioles in Suffolk's poplar forests. She writes with heart-tugging clarity about wild boar, swifts, mushroom hunting, migraines, the strangeness of birds' nests, and the unexpected guidance and comfort we find when watching wildlife.
By one of this century's most important and insightful nature writers, Vesper Flights is a captivating and foundational book about observation, fascination, time, memory, love and loss and how we make sense of the world around us.
Animals don't exist in order to teach us things, but that is what they have always done, and most of what they teach us is what we think we know about ourselves.
In Vesper Flights, Helen Macdonald brings together a collection of her best loved essays, along with new pieces on topics ranging from nostalgia for a vanishing countryside to the tribulations of farming ostriches to her own private vespers while trying to fall asleep.
Meditating on notions of captivity and freedom, immigration and flight, Helen invites us into her most intimate experiences: observing the massive migration of songbirds from the top of the Empire State Building, watching tens of thousands of cranes in Hungary, seeking the last golden orioles in Suffolk's poplar forests. She writes with heart-tugging clarity about wild boar, swifts, mushroom hunting, migraines, the strangeness of birds' nests, and the unexpected guidance and comfort we find when watching wildlife.
By one of this century's most important and insightful nature writers, Vesper Flights is a captivating and foundational book about observation, fascination, time, memory, love and loss and how we make sense of the world around us.
Editorial Reviews
Praise for Vesper Flights
Instant New York Times Bestseller
One of Washington Post's 10 Best Books of 2020
Named One of the Best Books of the Summer by The New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, TIME, and Literary Hub
"Macdonald experiments with tempo and style, as if testing out different altitudes and finding she can fly at just about any speed, in any direction, with any aim she likes, so supple is her style. She writes about migration patterns and storms, nests as a metaphor for the domestic and the danger of using nature as metaphor at all. I was reminded of the goshawk, so thickly plumed, so powerful that it can bring down a deer, and yet it weighs only a few pounds. These are the very paradoxes of Macdonald's prose - its lightness and force." -Parul Sehgal, New York Times
"Vesper Flights is a book of tremendous purpose. Throughout these essays, Macdonald revisits the idea that as a writer it is her responsibility to take stock of what's happening to the natural world and to convey the value of the living things within it." -Washington Post
"If you're looking to see the natural world through someone else's eyes, you'd be hard-pressed to find a better set than those of Helen Macdonald...[Her] writing is miraculously light and substantive at the same time, and her prose is so beautiful, my review copy was hopelessly dog-eared. What makes her such a great observer is her humility and willingness to crack herself open with awe." -San Francisco Chronicle
"MacDonald's writing captures the inexpressible rhythm of being... [Her] essays are, if anything, murmurations for our ominous time – dark yet flashing, stirred from the core." -USA Today
"[E]xhilarating… No one describes the everyday natural world with greater power or beauty." -Slate
"Dazzling… Ms. Macdonald reminds us how marvelously unfamiliar much of the nonhuman world remains to us, even as we continue to diminish it." -Wall Street Journal
"For many this year, the great outdoors has been the great beyond, rendering it impossible to feel at one with nature. For this reason, Vesper Flights is essential reading right now. But it is also a book to relish at any time, both for its intelligence and grace, and its ability to edify and enchant in equal measure." -Minneapolis Star-Tribune
"[An] altogether memorable collection . . . Exemplary ...
Instant New York Times Bestseller
One of Washington Post's 10 Best Books of 2020
Named One of the Best Books of the Summer by The New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, TIME, and Literary Hub
"Macdonald experiments with tempo and style, as if testing out different altitudes and finding she can fly at just about any speed, in any direction, with any aim she likes, so supple is her style. She writes about migration patterns and storms, nests as a metaphor for the domestic and the danger of using nature as metaphor at all. I was reminded of the goshawk, so thickly plumed, so powerful that it can bring down a deer, and yet it weighs only a few pounds. These are the very paradoxes of Macdonald's prose - its lightness and force." -Parul Sehgal, New York Times
"Vesper Flights is a book of tremendous purpose. Throughout these essays, Macdonald revisits the idea that as a writer it is her responsibility to take stock of what's happening to the natural world and to convey the value of the living things within it." -Washington Post
"If you're looking to see the natural world through someone else's eyes, you'd be hard-pressed to find a better set than those of Helen Macdonald...[Her] writing is miraculously light and substantive at the same time, and her prose is so beautiful, my review copy was hopelessly dog-eared. What makes her such a great observer is her humility and willingness to crack herself open with awe." -San Francisco Chronicle
"MacDonald's writing captures the inexpressible rhythm of being... [Her] essays are, if anything, murmurations for our ominous time – dark yet flashing, stirred from the core." -USA Today
"[E]xhilarating… No one describes the everyday natural world with greater power or beauty." -Slate
"Dazzling… Ms. Macdonald reminds us how marvelously unfamiliar much of the nonhuman world remains to us, even as we continue to diminish it." -Wall Street Journal
"For many this year, the great outdoors has been the great beyond, rendering it impossible to feel at one with nature. For this reason, Vesper Flights is essential reading right now. But it is also a book to relish at any time, both for its intelligence and grace, and its ability to edify and enchant in equal measure." -Minneapolis Star-Tribune
"[An] altogether memorable collection . . . Exemplary ...
Readers Top Reviews
L. RoachPatrick Lync
This book is beautifully written - lyrical and poetic. I listened to it as well and Macdonald has a wonderful deep resonant voice. I work in conservation and she expresses the awe I feel when closely observing anything in nature. Like Ms Macdonald I have learned my most important life lessons from nature and she captures that feeling in beautiful, memorable word images.
Kindle
I read this because I had heard so many positive things about it and was very pleasantly surprised to agree with all that I had heard. A collection of essays, part autobiography, part nature Field guide that served as a very gratifying, informative read.
Erik Schmidt
I couldn't be more grateful for this book. Macdonald offers beautifully written glimpses into nature that are perfect for a coffee break while working from home during a pandemic. I love the way she balances natural history with personal reflection. It strikes me as a midpoint between the outward vision of an author like Edward Hoagland and the inward vision of someone like Annie Dillard. More importantly, she finds hope in the midst of environmental crisis without resorting to sentimental platitudes. Macdonald's H is for Hawk helped me work through my father's death several years ago and this book is helping me work through the complicated feelings that come with living in 2020.
P. J. Inglet
This collection of essays touched me in so many ways. Having read "H is for Hawk," I knew I had some great writing in store. Helen Macdonald's connection to nature is so palpable, it flows off the page and grabs the reader by the heartstrings and stimulates thinking along different intellectual pathways. I didn't want the book to end. I will re-read portions of it--the beauty of the essay is that each piece can stand alone and be chosen for a re-visit when circumstances suggest a particular selection.
Lark Kephart
I adore this book. Occasionally, blessedly, one comes upon a book that touches something deep inside, that affects you and makes you hungry for more. The kind of book you reread every year or two and you glean something different and precious each time. In all my years of reading, I have maybe 8 or 9 such books in my treasury. This is the latest addition and I haven’t even read it all yet! I want to savor it slowly. There is nothing like the very first read of a book like this. For a bibliophile, it is....pardon the expression..... orgasmic. It is what reading for pleasure is all about.
