Year of the Monkey

Critics Review

• Both mundane and magical … Moves constantly between reverie and memory … Portents and symbols lurk in unexpected places, and everyday objects become freighted with meaning … A reflection both on mortality and of the times in which Smith finds herself, but rich in detail

  Guardian

• A gripping tale of the search for meaning in times of turbulence – expressed with Smith’s signature poetic flair

  Vogue

• An engaging musing on mortality and defiance of age

  i

• A moving account of the emotional stumbles, physical and intellectual wanderings and deep losses Smith experienced in her 70th year

  Independent

• Some rock stars shut themselves away from life, but Smith’s engagement with the world only deepens, as this dreamy memoir shows

  Daily Telegraph

• Extraordinary … A tense, teasing mix of reality and dream … It’s a drifter’s book, in time, space and the imagination

  Sunday Times

• A picaresque voyage through her dreams and life as she faced 70, dealing with flashes of “sorrow’s vertigo” as she remembers all the loves and rock contemporaries who are gone, with a kaleidoscope of references from “Mr. Robot” to Marcus Aurelius to Martin Beck mysteries to Maria Callas’s Medea

  International New York Times

• A profoundly beautiful book, poetic in its prose and metaphysical in its meaning, it’s quite a stunning read

  Financial Times

• The narrating voice is the voice of Smith’s music, twisting between the incantations of a priestess and laconic poetry … There is plenty of wonderful in this small, sly, mystic book

  Spectator

• A beatnik Alice in Wonderland, measured out in black coffee and Polaroids, it’s full of quiet puzzles, small epiphanies, more little clues how to live

  Q Magazine

• Arresting … Diverting and often unexpected, fresh and diverting

  Literary Review

• In the twilight of her career, punk’s original princess is reinventing herself as a memoirist of some distinction … It sings strong with her singular, itinerant, coffee-guzzling beat spirit. Essential reading for diehard fans

  Metro

• A profoundly lyrical, digressive mapping of her fame-and-family decades … This third memoir finds Smith unhomed, at times almost unhinged, as she does her utmost to ward off those Beaten Generation blues

  Mojo

• Elegiac … A strikingly intimate portrait of a woman growing older and missing those who are no longer with us but remaining wide awake to the world and hopeful for its future

  Sunday Express

• A melancholy mood and poetic language distinguish Smith’s third memoir

  BBC

• Poet and performer Smith’s latest memoir zooms in tight … Her willingness to look closely at life’s closing chapters makes for a magical book

  Washington Post, 'The 10 books to read in September'

• Lovely … a slim volume [with a] minor-key melancholy

  Entertainment Weekly

• Patti Smith’s brilliant new memoir about love, loss and growing older … I’m already captivated by her poetic prose

  Daily Mirror

• Smith’s grace and erudite philosophy is a welcome balm in these times

  Town & Country

• Smith’s reflections on a wrenching yet grace-filled year are elegiac, vital, and magical. … Smith’s large, loyal following will seek out this spellbinding memoir, just as they embraced Just Kids (2010) and M Train (2015)

  Booklist

• Luminous … Smith casts a mesmerizing spell with exquisite prose

  Publishers Weekly

• This is the modern-day Patti Smith: older, wiser, seeing the world, and reporting it all back to us in only the way she can. You can’t read this and not feel inspired after you put it down

  Inside Hook

• An incantatory, ambulatory travelogue

  New Statesman

• Captivating … Redemptive

  Kirkus

• She weaves the threads of her thoughts and past relationships together, creating a dreamy memoir on the passage of time and our changing world

  Wanderlust

• One of the great diarists of her, or any other time, with an exquisite voice which manages to somehow transform even the most ordinary event into something otherworldly … An enchanting hitchhike through 2016 … Every occurrence sears into the reader’s psyche in vivid detail … Time spent in the company of Patti is always a pleasure

  Classic Pop

• A rock-star prophetess … Meditative, messy, poignant, deeply personal, allusive, occasionally bombastic and, crucially, still defiant, Year of the Monkey is a mercurial fusion of the mundane and visionary that only an unconquerable spirit like Patti Smith could write

  Herald

• She can find artistic endeavour in the mundane; or bone-deep comfort in a cup of black coffee and a cinnamon doughnut … Incredibly moving … As much a glimpse of a troubled year in Patti’s life, as a portal into our own

  Record Collector