Savage Park: A Meditation on Play, Space, and Risk for Americans Who Are Nervous, Distracted, and Afraid to Die

On a visit to Tokyo with her family, Fusselman stumbles on Hanegi playpark, where children are sawing wood, hammering nails, stringing hammocks to trees, building open fires. When she returns to New York, her conceptions of space, risk, and fear are completely changed. Fusselman invites us along on her tightrope-walking expeditions with Philippe Petit and late night adventures with the Tokyo park-workers, showing that when we deprive ourselves, and our children, of the experience of taking risks in space, we make them less safe, not more so.

Savage Park is a fresh, poetic reconsideration of behaviors in our culture that — in the guise of protecting us — make us numb and encourage us to sleepwalk through our lives. We babyproof our homes; plug our ears to our devices while walking through the city. What would happen if we exposed ourselves, if — like the children at Hanegi park — we put ourselves in situations that require true vigilance? Readers of Rebecca Solnit and Cheryl Strayed will delight in the revelations in Savage Park.

Praise for Amy Fusselman:
"The writer's skill...shines through...Fusselman [writes] with wry humor and a sense of wonder."—Washington Post

"[Fusselman] makes the world strange again, a place where dying and making life are equally mysterious and miraculous activities"—Time Out New York

Praise for The Pharmacist's Mate:
"Fusselman's book, brief as it is, affected me deeply. Not only that, the talent displayed therein was somewhat unnerving."—Zadie Smith

"It is impossible not to surrender to Amy Fusselman's lovely, haunting voice and strange meditations."—Amanda Davis

"One of the best books about loss I've ever read."—Rosie O'Donnell

"The book fluctuates wildly and unpredictably from Fusselman’s attempt to get pregnant through artificial means, her conversations with her dying father and his WWII diary entries. I don’t know what the next paragraph will be, where Fusselman is going, until—in the final few paragraphs—she lands on the gossamer-thin difference between life and death, which is where she’s been focused all along, if I could only have seen it."—David Shields

Advance Praise for Savage Park:

"Amy Fusselman writes with a unique depth of feeling, and Savage Park is a fascinating and daresay essential meditation on childhood, parenthood, and the importance of wild spaces for those wild creatures known as kids." — Dave Eggers "In this unusually refreshing meditation (which reads like a novel), we are given a tour of the space around and within us. With poetic efficiency Amy Fusselman reveals what makes us savage or not; why secret, wild spaces are essential; and, why playing should be taken seriously." —Philippe Petit, High Wire Artist “I yield to no one in my admiration for Amy Fusselman’s work. Her new book, Savage Park, further explores with astonishing power, eloquence, precision, and acid humor her obsessive, necessary theme: the gossamer-thin separation between life and death.”—David Shields, author of Reality Hunger "Savage Park is a deeply felt and brilliant evocation of one of motherhood's most pressing concerns: safety. In asking whether we can live fully--or parent successfully--when we're governed by an unacknowledged fear of death, Fusselman jumps high above the tedious Mommy Wars, elevating crucial questions of parenting to a profound philosophical level. Here's hoping more writer-mothers follow her lead."--Darcey Steinke, author of Sister Golden Hair "Amy Fusselman helps us see, and feel, what matters most about being alive. This is a daring and artful—and exhilarating—book. The ideas are bracing; the stories are irresistible; the prose sets a new standard for non-fiction literature." —Joshua Wolf Shenk, author of Powers of Two “Fusselman’s mind is a playground in and of itself. [Her] prose has a spare, clean elegance that can carry a knife-like precision.”—San Francisco Chronicle “This brief, passionate book....never fails to engage.”—Kate Tuttle, The Boston Globe

Advance Praise for Savage Park:

"Amy Fusselman writes with a unique depth of feeling, and Savage Park is a fascinating and daresay essential meditation on childhood, parenthood, and the importance of wild spaces for those wild creatures known as kids." — Dave Eggers "In this unusually refreshing meditation (which reads like a novel), we are given a tour of the space around and within us. With poetic efficiency Amy Fusselman reveals what makes us savage or not; why secret, wild spaces are essential; and, why playing should be taken seriously. I should add, she frightened me with: It is still illegal to climb a tree in Central Park!" —Philippe Petit, High Wire Artist “I yield to no one in my admiration for Amy Fusselman’s work. Her new book, Savage Park, further explores with astonishing power, eloquence, precision, and acid humor her obsessive, necessary theme: the gossamer-thin separation between life and death.”—David Shields, author of Reality Hunger "Savage Park is a deeply felt and brilliant evocation of one of motherhood's most pressing concerns: safety. In asking whether we can live fully--or parent successfully--when we're governed by an unacknowledged fear of death, Fusselman jumps high above the tedious Mommy Wars, elevating crucial questions of parenting to a profound philosophical level. Here's hoping more writer-mothers follow her lead."--Darcey Steinke, author of Sister Golden Hair "Amy Fusselman helps us see, and feel, what matters most about being alive. This is a daring and artful—and exhilarating—book. The ideas are bracing; the stories are irresistible; the prose sets a new standard for non-fiction literature." —Joshua Wolf Shenk, author of Powers of Two

Advance Praise for Savage Park:

"In this unusually refreshing meditation (which reads like a novel), we are given a tour of the space around and within us. With poetic efficiency Amy Fusselman reveals what makes us savage or not; why secret, wild spaces are essential; and, why playing should be taken seriously. I should add, she frightened me with: It is still illegal to climb a tree in Central Park!"
—Philippe Petit, High Wire Artist

Advance Praise for Savage Park:

"Amy Fusselman writes with a unique depth of feeling, and Savage Park is a fascinating and daresay essential meditation on childhood, parenthood, and the importance of wild spaces for those wild creatures known as kids." — Dave Eggers "In this unusually refreshing meditation (which reads like a novel), we are given a tour of the space around and within us. With poetic efficiency Amy Fusselman reveals what makes us savage or not; why secret, wild spaces are essential; and, why playing should be taken seriously." —Philippe Petit, High Wire Artist “I yield to no one in my admiration for Amy Fusselman’s work. Her new book, Savage Park, further explores with astonishing power, eloquence, precision, and acid humor her obsessive, necessary theme: the gossamer-thin separation between life and death.”—David Shields, author of Reality Hunger "Savage Park is a deeply felt and brilliant evocation of one of motherhood's most pressing concerns: safety. In asking whether we can live fully--or parent successfully--when we're governed by an unacknowledged fear of death, Fusselman jumps high above the tedious Mommy Wars, elevating crucial questions of parenting to a profound philosophical level. Here's hoping more writer-mothers follow her lead."--Darcey Steinke, author of Sister Golden Hair "Amy Fusselman helps us see, and feel, what matters most about being alive. This is a daring and artful—and exhilarating—book. The ideas are bracing; the stories are irresistible; the prose sets a new standard for non-fiction literature." —Joshua Wolf Shenk, author of Powers of Two

Praise for Amy Fusselman:
"The writer's skill . . . shines through . . . Fusselman [writes] with wry humor and a sense of wonder."—Washington Post

"[Fusselman] makes the world strange again, a place where dying and making life are equally mysterious and miraculous activities"—Time Out New York

Praise for The Pharmacist's Mate:
"Fusselman's book, brief as it is, affected me deeply. Not only that, the talent displayed therein was somewhat unnerving."—Zadie Smith

"It is impossible not to surrender to Amy Fusselman's lovely, haunting voice and strange meditations."—Amanda Davis

"One of the best books about loss I've ever read."—Rosie O'Donnell

"The book fluctuates wildly and unpredictably from Fusselman’s attempt to get pregnant through artificial means, her conversations with her dying father and his WWII diary entries. I don’t know what the next paragraph will be, where Fusselman is going, until—in the final few paragraphs—she lands on the gossamer-thin difference between life and death, which is where she’s been focused all along, if I could only have seen it."—David Shields

Advance Praise for Savage Park:

"In this unusually refreshing meditation (which reads like a novel), we are given a tour of the space around and within us. With poetic efficiency Amy Fusselman reveals what makes us savage or not; why secret, wild spaces are essential; and, why playing should be taken seriously. I should add, she frightened me with: It is still illegal to climb a tree in Central Park!" —Philippe Petit, High Wire Artist “I yield to no one in my admiration for Amy Fusselman’s work. Her new book, Savage Park, further explores with astonishing power, eloquence, precision, and acid humor her obsessive, necessary theme: the gossamer-thin separation between life and death.”—David Shields, author of Reality Hunger "Savage Park is a deeply felt and brilliant evocation of one of motherhood's most pressing concerns: safety. In asking whether we can live fully--or parent successfully--when we're governed by an unacknowledged fear of death, Fusselman jumps high above the tedious Mommy Wars, elevating crucial questions of parenting to a profound philosophical level. Here's hoping more writer-mothers follow her lead."--Darcey Steinke, author of Sister Golden Hair "Amy Fusselman helps us see, and feel, what matters most about being alive. This is a daring and artful—and exhilarating—book. The ideas are bracing; the stories are irresistible; the prose sets a new standard for non-fiction literature." —Joshua Wolf Shenk, author of Powers of Two