Dimensions
216 x 279 x 29mm
From family picnics to first loves, Renaissance statues to untamed wilderness, public parks hold the collective memories of their cities. Offering the opportunity for quiet, a chance to be social--sometimes with strangers--and a necessary bit of green among urban chaos, city parks can mean something different to everyone, but offer a kind of permanence amidst constant change.
In City Parks, more than a dozen writers reflect on various parks, and the personal moments they associate with them, that hold special significance. Andrew Sean Greer eloquently paints a portrait of first love in the Presidio; André Aciman muses on the passage of time and the changing face of New York as viewed from the High Line; Nicole Krauss describes the real citizens of Prospect Park-dogs!; Simon Winchester takes readers along on his adventures in the Maidan; and Bill Clinton describes his affection for Dumbarton Oaks.
Intensely personal, yet joined by overlapping themes of memory and time passing, these essays form a unique whole and a warm portrait of parks around the world. From London to Brooklyn, India to Chicago, and Paris to San Francisco, these writers reveal the importance of parks in the cities in which they exist.
Beautifully illustrated with color and black-and-white images, City Parks is at once a literary anthology and a collector's item, one that illuminates our personal histories and public experiences.
Contributors include André Aciman, Jonathan Alter, John Banville, Candice Bergen, Bill Clinton, Amanda Foreman, Norman Foster, Ian Frazier, Andrew Sean Greer, Amanda Harlech, Pico Iyer, Nicole Krauss, David Lida, Jan Morris, Ben Okri, Tim Parks, Ahdaf Souief, Colm Toibin, and Simon Winchester.
