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. Provided by publisher.

Way out west -- ICU -- YOM 2016 -- What Marcus said -- Big Red -- Intermission -- Home is the sailor -- Imitation of a dream -- Black butterflies -- Amulets -- In search of imagines -- Why Belinda Carlisle matters -- The holy see -- The mystic lamb -- The golden cockerel -- A night on the moon -- A kind of epilogue.