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cover art for Helen Macdonald & Sin Blaché (Writers, H is for Hawk, Prophet).

My Perfect Console with Simon Parkin

Helen Macdonald & Sin Blaché (Writers, H is for Hawk, Prophet).

Ep. 58

My guests today are co-authors of the techno-thriller novel Prophet. Helen Macdonald is an English writer, naturalist, and an affiliated research scholar at the University of Cambridge. Their 2014 book “H is for Hawk” tells the true story of a year spent training a northern goshawk while grieving. The book won, among many other things, the Samuel Johnson Prize for literature.


Sin Blaché is an American Irish musician and writer. The pair became friends on social media where they bonded over nerdish things. Then they arranged to meet in a remote Airbnb in rural Ireland, and began work on a collaborative novel. The result, Prophet, was released in late 2023 to widespread acclaim.


A reviewer for The Guardian described it as “a work of exceptional storytelling skill and stylistic panache,” suggesting an alternative title might be ‘H Is for High-Octane Adventure.” 

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