by Patti Smith
First published 2017
As Patti Smith prepares to visit Paris, a chance encounter with a film about Stalin's deportation of Estonians sparks her imagination. In France, a gravestone, a skating competition, a meal, and a garden coalesce into a fable about a young, displaced Estonian skater and a solitary dealer in rare objects. Smith blends lyric essays, poetry, and photographs, weaving a mesmerizing meditation on the nature of creativity, obsession, and freedom.
Genres: art, essays, literary-fiction, non-fiction, biography-memoir, 21st-century
Vibes: emotional, intimate, lyrical, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family
Setting: Estonia, France, Paris, Russia
Period: 20th-century, 21st-century
109 pages · Paperback · Yale University Press