M Train

Patti Smith’s M Train is a deeply personal odyssey of a legendary artist, told through the cafés and haunts she has frequented around the world. Described by Smith as “a roadmap to my life,” the book blends dream and reality as it journeys from a Greenwich Village morning coffee ritual to iconic destinations such as Frida Kahlo’s Casa Azul, a gathering of an Arctic explorer’s society in Berlin, and a seaside bungalow in New York’s Far Rockaway. Interwoven with reflections on writing, artistic creation, and the craft of storytelling, M Train also offers intimate memories of Smith’s life in Michigan and the irremediable loss of her husband, Fred Sonic Smith. The narrative is enriched by Polaroid imagery and a meditation on travel, television, literature, and coffee, creating a poetic tapestry that captures despair, hope, and consolation. This revised edition broadens the meditation with five thousand words of bonus material and new photographs, inviting readers to revisit the book as a vivid portrait of a life in motion.

The memoir presents Smith’s prose as a fluid landscape where dreams mingle with memory, and where the author’s observant voice invites contemplation of art, love, and resilience.

Features

• Revised edition with five thousand words of bonus material
• Includes new photographs
• Prose blends dreams, memory, present and past
• Settings span Greenwich Village, Berlin, Mexico, and more
• Polaroid illustrations accompany the text
• Thematic focus on travel, literature, and coffee
• Personal memories of husband Fred Sonic Smith