Year of the Monkey

From the National Book Award-winning author of Just Kids and M Train, a profound, beautifully realized memoir in which dreams and reality are vividly woven into a tapestry of one transformative year

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER | From the National Book Award-winning author of Just Kids

''Magical'' GUARDIAN
''A gripping tale of the search for meaning in times of turbulence - expressed with Smith’s signature poetic flair'' VOGUE
''Extraordinary ... A tense, teasing mix of reality and dream'' SUNDAY TIMES
''Her willingness to look closely at life’s closing chapters makes for a magical book'' WASHINGTON POST, ''The 10 books to read in September''

Following a run of New Year’s concerts at San Francisco’s legendary Fillmore, Patti Smith finds herself tramping the coast of Santa Cruz, about to embark on a year of solitary wandering. Unfettered by logic or time, she draws us into her private wonderland, with no design yet heeding signs, including a talking sign that looms above her, prodding and sparring like the Cheshire Cat.

In February, a surreal lunar year begins, bringing with it unexpected turns, heightened mischief, and inescapable sorrow. In a stranger’s words, “Anything is possible: after all, it’s the year of the monkey.” For Patti Smith - inveterately curious, always exploring, tracking thoughts, writing the year evolves as one of reckoning with the changes in life’s gyre: with loss, aging, and a dramatic shift in the political landscape of America.

Smith melds the Western landscape with her own dreamscape. Taking us from Southern California to the Arizona desert; to a Kentucky farm as the amanuensis of a friend in crisis; to the hospital room of a valued mentor; and by turns to remembered and imagined places - this haunting memoir blends fact and fiction with poetic mastery. The unexpected happens; grief and disillusionment. But as Patti Smith heads toward a new decade in her own life, she offers this balm to the reader: her wisdom, wit, gimlet eye, and above all, a rugged hope of a better world.

Riveting, elegant, often humorous, illustrated by Smith’s signature Polaroids, Year of the Monkey is a moving and original work, a touchstone for our turbulent times.

• | Author: Patti Smith
• | Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
• | Publication Date: Sep 01, 2020
• | Number of Pages:
• | Language:
• | Binding: Paperback / softback
• | ISBN-13: 9781526614766
• | ISBN-10: 1526614766