The Peregrine [Paperback]

This extraordinary, poetic portrait of two peregrine falcons is one of the most beloved works of nature writing ever published.

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.

It's a most incredible book. It has prose of the caliber that we have not seen since Joseph Conrad—an ecstasy of a delirious sort of love for what he observes. —Werner Herzog

This is not a book about watching a bird, but a book about becoming a bird. . . . It’s a book that everyone who makes films should read. —Werner Herzog

[T]he 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

A powerful evocation of East Anglia’s winter landscape, and an unforgettable portrait of a man’s passionate engagement with the natural world. —Llƒ¾