Beute

From the first track to the shot, from the breaking of the game to consumption: Pauline de Bok takes us on a journey of discovery through the world of hunting. Her brilliantly written book is both a reflection on human nature as a hunter, the pleasure of taking prey, the eating of animals, and moral responsibility.

Initially, it is just an experiment: to write a novel, Pauline de Bok obtains a hunting license. However, hunting awakens something within her, changes her life, and she remains a hunter, retreating for a year to a converted cow shed in Mecklenburg. In the book that emerges from this experience, she recounts her solitary life amidst fields, lakes, and forests, in tune with the rhythm of the seasons. She observes wild boars, deer, herds of fallow deer, foxes, and hares, keeps an eye out for wolves, sits in wait in wind and rain, participates in driven hunts, and utilizes her catch from head to tail.

In her captivating narratives, hunting proves to be a highly insightful activity: a hunter must empathize with the animals, but they must also know themselves: their motives, abilities, weaknesses, and hunting instinct. At the same time, hunting holds up a mirror to a society that increasingly "consumes" animals but wants to remain ignorant of killing. Pauline de Bok's hunting book invites us to rethink the relationship between humans and animals and the place of humans in nature.