Wednesday: Amy Fusselman at the Booksmith

AMY FUSSELMAN was raped by her babysitter’s husband when she was four years old. In 8: A Memoir, she forgoes describing the violation in favor of chronicling the snowballing fallout it had on every aspect of her life. Her debut, The Pharmacist’s Mate (click for an excerpt), was a series of vignettes and musings on the death of her father and her own pregnancy; 8 — which is named after the figure eights she skated as a child — strives for a similarly unfiltered intimacy, as Fusselman recalls her experiences with her rapist (whom she refers to as “my pedophile”), the birth of her son, and her foray into alternative healing methods. But the real revelation here is Fusselman’s tender and often fearless voice. She’ll read and sign at Brookline Booksmith, 279 Harvard St, Brookline | 7 pm | free | 617.566.6660.