City Parks: Public Places, Private Thoughts (Hardback)

Features: Andre Aciman; Jonathan Alter; John Banville; Bill Clinton; Candice Bergen; Norman Foster; Amanda Foreman; Ian Frazier; Andrew Sean Greer ; Amanda Harlech; Pico Iyer; Nicole Krauss; David Lida; Jan Morris; Zadie Smith; Ahdaf Soueif; Colm Toibin; and,Simon Winchester. In City Parks, eighteen writers reflect on various parks that hold a special significance for them, sharing personal moments they associate with them. Andrew Sean Greer eloquently paints a portrait of first love in the Presidio; Andre 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 the unstoppable passage of time, these essays create a warm portrait of parks around the world-from London to Brooklyn, Calcutta to Chicago, Paris to San Francisco-and offer a unique, thoughtful vision of their significance both to the individual and society itself. Beautifully illustrated with color and black-and-white images, City Parks is a literary anthology and collector's item that illuminates our personal histories and public experiences.