In the wonder-filled world of Patti Smith there are signs and portents everywhere – from a quote in a novel to dreams that seem full of mystery and meaning.

The autobiographical M Train is a lyrical look at a woman who is accepting of the world’s melancholy and magic, and who’s determined to find inspiration everywhere, even as she’s grieving for the loss of her husband Fred Sonic Smith.

For Smith, coffee is an essential consolation, poets are sacred and awed pilgrimages to Frida Kahlo’s Casa Azul or Jean Genet’s grave replenish her quietly suffering soul as she meditates on the best way to live a life.

M Train by Patti Smith (Bloomsbury, £18.99) is out now