BREAD OF ANGELS

Bread of Angelsis a radiant new memoir from beloved artist and writer Patti Smith.

God whispers through a crease in the wallpaper, writes Patti Smith in this indelible account of her life as an artist.

A post-Second World War childhood unfolds in a condemned housing complex described in Dickensian detail. Consumptive children, vanishing neighbours, an infested rat house, and a beguiling book of Irish fairytales. We enter the child's world of the imagination where Smith, the captain of her loyal and beloved sibling army, vanquishes bullies, communes with the king of tortoises and searches for sacred silver pennies.

The most intimate of Smith's memoirs, Bread of Angels takes us through her teenage years where the first glimmers of art and romance take hold.

Arthur Rimbaud and Bob Dylan emerge as creative heroes and role models as Patti starts to write. Poetry, then lyrics, merging both into the iconic songs and recordings.

She leaves it all behind to marry her one true love, Fred Sonic Smith. With whom she creates a life of devotion and adventure. The couple spend nights in their landlocked Chris-Craft studying nautical maps and charting new adventures as they start their family.

As Smith suffers profound losses, grief and gratitude are braided through years of caring for her children, rebuilding her life and, finally, writing again . The one constant in a life driven by artistic freedom and the power of the imagination. To transform the mundane into the beautiful. The commonplace into the magical, and pain into hope.

Bread of Angels - Patti Smith - 9781408867730