34%
off
off
The Peregrine
Free delivery worldwide
Available.
Dispatched from the UK in 2 business days
When will my order arrive?
Description
From fall to spring, J.A. Baker set out to track the daily comings and goings of a pair of peregrine falcons across the flat fen lands of eastern England. He followed the birds obsessively, observing them in the air and on the ground, in pursuit of their prey, making a kill, eating, and at rest, activities he describes with an extraordinary fusion of precision and poetry. And as he continued his mysterious private quest, his sense of human self slowly dissolved, to be replaced with the alien and implacable consciousness of a hawk. It is this extraordinary metamorphosis, magical and terrifying, that these beautifully written pages record.
show more
show more
Product details
- Paperback | 208 pages
- 128 x 196 x 14mm | 222.26g
- 15 Feb 2005
- The New York Review of Books, Inc
- NYRB Classics
- New York, United States
- English
- Main
- 1590171330
- 9781590171332
- 8,477
Review Text
Baker never explains his journey from man to falcon, the necessity for it, the cause of it, or even his own fate as either falcon or man, but his transition in this startling work of nonfiction becomes very nearly complete as he defines falcon behavior and falcon ritual through the actions of his own body and mind to acquire what he calls
show more
show more
Review quote
."..the book is a work of tireless outward observation, with an astonishingly inventive and precise prose style....Baker's feet may be on the ground, but his gaze is skyward, toward the birds he envies." "--"Lisa Darms, "Bookforum""""Remarkable...the lyrical prose hammers home the attraction of pitting predator against quarry." --"Daily Telegraph "(London)
show more
show more
About J. A. Baker
J. A. Baker is also the author of The Hill of Summer. He was a native of Essex, England. Robert Macfarlane's Mountains of the Mind (2003), about wilderness and the Western imagination, won the Somerset Maugham Award and the Guardian First Book Award, among other prizes.
show more
show more