Leaving the City is a visionary book about health and happiness in the
'other' America - the places outside of the intense urban centers like
NYC and LA. The urban world is known for its harried pace, mutual
alienation and distance from the rhythms of nature and of human nature.
He focuses not merely on contagion, pollutants, violence and innumerable
other sources - both natural and human - of illness, disability and
premature death that one finds in urban America, but also addresses the
inherent unhappiness and threats to mental health that life in the urban
world typically brings.