The Hawk is a book about a man and a bird of prey, and also a fable about selfhood and the exercise of power. It can be read as a treatise on the nature of freedom, education, power, war, history, class belonging, enslavement, the English landscape, and the twists and turns of the human heart, for it is all of this and much more. Thus, Helen Macdonald describes this diary-style book about White's attempt to tame a hawk, the wildest of all birds of prey. Equipped with nothing but a 16th-century falconry book, he confronts the sheer primal force of the bird: the ruthless yet innocent hunter reflects his ideal image of the solitary loner that he himself was. The taming becomes a metaphysical contest of strength - White seeks to tame the bird as a way to also tame his own capriciousness.