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
 
'A melancholy mood and poetic language distinguish Smith's third memoir'
BBC
 
'Her willingness to look closely at life's closing chapters makes for a magical book'
WASHINGTON POST
 
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.