Stepping away from music for a bit, Patti Smith has announced she will be releasing a new book. Called Year of the Monkey, Smith's latest literary collection will arrive on September 24 via Penguin Random House.
"I began writing it on New Year's Day, 2016," Smith wrote in her Instagram announcement, "in cafes, trains and strange motels by the sea, with no particular design, until page by page it became a book."
The official book synopsis from the publisher reads as follows:
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 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.
The book will follow Smith's previous books, 2010's Just Kids and 2015's M Train.
"I began writing it on New Year's Day, 2016," Smith wrote in her Instagram announcement, "in cafes, trains and strange motels by the sea, with no particular design, until page by page it became a book."
The official book synopsis from the publisher reads as follows:
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 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.
The book will follow Smith's previous books, 2010's Just Kids and 2015's M Train.