Back To One

What happens when the life you thought you had suddenly disappears? In Back to One, Art Chudabala takes readers through the raw, messy, often hilarious reality of divorce, heartbreak, fatherhood, and rebuilding a life from the ground up. When Art’s marriage ends, he finds himself unmoored. The husband, father, provider, and man he thought he understood himself to be suddenly feels like a role from a script that no longer exists. He searches the internet for ways to save his marriage, falls down the rabbit hole of relationship gurus and “get your ex back” advice, and discovers that what he really needs isn’t a strategy to win someone back—it’s a way to find himself again. With brutal honesty and irreverent humor, Art revisits the story of his marriage, from online dating and a whirlwind romance to a proposal in Thailand, a Maui wedding, the birth of his twin daughters, and the slow unraveling that eventually led to separation and divorce. But this isn't simply a story about losing a marriage. It's about what happens afterward. Through solitude, therapy, men's groups, fatherhood, recovery, exercise, reflection, and confronting the patterns he carried from childhood, Art begins rebuilding his identity. He learns that strength doesn't require pretending to be fine, that vulnerability isn't weakness, and that being a good father isn't about fixing everything—it's about being present, honest, and real. Funny, painful, profane, and deeply personal, Back to One offers companionship to men standing in the wreckage of a relationship and wondering what comes next. Because sometimes starting over isn't really starting over. Sometimes it's finding your way back to who you were before the performance began.