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Stephen Fishbach Releases Debut Novel ‘Escape!’ Exploring Reality TV From the Inside

The novel centers contestants’ interior worlds to probe reality TV’s grip on identity, spotlighting narrative control.

Overview

  • Escape! is out today through Dutton, an imprint of Penguin Random House, and is available widely.
  • After early drafts from a producer’s viewpoint, Fishbach rewrote the book to foreground contestants following graduate-school feedback.
  • The story examines who shapes a contestant’s public narrative, the psychological effects of participation, and the off-camera lives of producers.
  • Fishbach says the book is fiction rather than memoir, informed by interviews with producers and contestants across the reality-TV landscape.
  • While peppered with Survivor Easter eggs, he frames the themes to speak to readers interested in image and storytelling beyond reality TV fandom.