Life can be hard: your lover cheats on you, you lose a family member, you can't pay the bills.But it can be pretty great, too: you've had the hottest sex of your life, you get that plum job,you muster the courage to write your novel. Everyday across the world, people go through thefull and glorious gamut of life - but sometimes, a little advice is needed.

For several years, thousands turned to Cheryl Strayed, a then-anonymous internet AgonyAunt. But unlike most Agony Aunts, this one's advice was spun from genuine compassion andinformed by a wealth of personal experience - experience that was sometimes tragic andsometimes tender, often hilarious and often heartbreaking. Having successfully battled her owndemons while hiking the Pacific Crest Trail, Cheryl Strayed sat down to answer the letters ofthe frightened, the anxious, the confused; and with each gem-like correspondence - of whichthe best are collected in this volume - she proved to be the perfect guide for those who had gota little lost in life.

'Strayed's worldview - her empathy, her nonjudgment, her belief in the fundamental logicof people's emotions and experiences despite occasional evidence to the contrary - beginsto seep into readers' consciousness in such a way that they can apply her generosity ofspirit to their own and, for a few hours at least, become better people... courageous andengaging stuff.' - New York Times