Bread of Angels

A Memoir

By: Patti Smith

Narrated by: Patti Smith

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A radiant new memoir from artist and writer Patti Smith, author of the National Book Award winner Just Kids

A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: TIME, NPR, THE NEW YORKER

“God whispers through a crease in the wallpaper,” writes Patti Smith in this moving account of her life. A post–World War II childhood unfolds in a condemned housing complex where we enter the child’s world of the imagination. 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 role models as she begins to write poetry then lyrics, ultimately merging both into the songs of iconic recordings such as Horses, Wave, and Easter.

She leaves it all behind to marry her one true love, Fred Sonic Smith, with whom she creates a life of devotion and adventure on a canal in St. Clair Shores, Michigan. Here, she invents a room of her own, a low table, a Persian cup, inkwell and pen, entering at dawn to write. The couple spend nights in their landlocked Chris-Craft studying nautical maps and charting new adventures as they start a family.

A series of profound losses mark her life. 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 commonplace into the magical, and pain into hope. In the final pages, we meet Smith on the road again, the vagabond who travels to commune with herself, who lives to write and writes to live.

Poetic telling of a one-of-a-kind amazing life!

I am late to the Patti Smith party but so glad I’ve finally arrived! I thoroughly enjoyed first “Just Kids” and now “Bread of Angels.” First, to remember so many details of one’s childhood & young adult years is very impressive. I come away from both books enriched by getting to know Patti and her circle of special people….many notable artists and others. I could see, hear and feel the places and experiences she so poignantly describes with her masterful vocabulary and poetic prose.

Patti Smith at her best

Interesting to hear. I believe it’s easier as an audio book than reading it. It’s complex but rewarding.

Beautifully written.

What an interesting life and so beautifully written. I now want to read the book so I can see the words on the pages.

Another Great Read by Patti Smith

Patti Smith’s Pearls of Wisdom : Her Life is Her Best Material & what a life. Wise words.

A RETELLING

Spiritual prequel and sequel to Just Kids - satisfying and grounded in a way that I yearned for when reading M Train. Brava.