In contrast to the makeovers and quick fixes hawked by popular culture, Escape Routes offers a tougher prescription. Using real-life stories as travel guides, Arnold exposes the root causes of loneliness, frustration, alienation, and despair and shows how anyone, regardless of their age, income bracket, or social status, can find freedom and new life. The choices he presents are clear: "to be selfish or selfless, to forgive or to hate, to burn with lust or with love."

No matter what your problems, or who you are, this book will help you on your way, provided you're ready to take its medicine.
, br>Arnold writes: "Call it life, call it hell: there's not a person I've met who hasn't been lonely, discouraged, depressed, or guilt-ridden at one time or another, if not sick, burned-out, or at sea in a relationship. Sometimes I know this because they have told me about their problems; sometimes I can tell just by looking in their eyes. That's what got me started on this book--the fact that all of us have known some form of hell in our lives, and that insofar as any of us find freedom, confidence, companionship, and community, we will also know happiness."