Michael Finkel

Michael Finkel

Michael Finkel was born in 1969 and is currently 57 years old. Michael Finkel was born in Atlanta, GA, USA. Finkel attended the University of Pennsylvania.

Michael Finkel is an author and journalist who spent most of his life chasing remarkable stories across the world.

Right from when he was a child, he dreamed of becoming a writer. It was this dream that soon had him working as a reporter for Skiing Magazine and even covering global adventures for The New York Times Magazine and National Geographic Adventure.

Due to the nature of his work, he has investigated conflicts in Israel and Afghanistan, crossed the Sahara with migrant workers, and skied on Mount Kilimanjaro.

Working at National Geographic, Michael Finkel covered survivalists, scientists, and reported on hidden corners of the globe from ancient Nepalese caves to volcanoes in the Congo.

His curious spirit would then lead him to France, where he interviewed a master art thief named Stephane Breitwieser, who stole more than 200 museum pieces just to admire them.

Michael Finkel often uses his many experiences as a reporter in the writing of his novels.

In his debut work, Alpine Circus, Michael Finkel compiles stories about his adventures.

The author takes his readers on his adventure skiing in the likes of New York City, Iran, Greenland, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Mount Kilimanjaro, China, and even an interstate truck ramp.

His stories are full of the varied characters he met along the way, even as he provides insights into the different geographies, cultures, geologies, and histories of the places he visits.

In his second work, True Story, Michael Finkel tells of how he started on the path to professional and personal redemption after he got a phone call a day before he left the New York Times Magazine.

He is informed that a man accused of killing his entire family had been impersonating him in Mexico, where he was on the run. But what began as professional curiosity soon turned into a journey of redemption as the two men began a long relationship.

The disgraced journalist is tested by his impersonator, but they develop a mutual, though tentative, trust through several thousand pages of letters and months of communication

In The Stranger in the Woods, the author tells the story of the shy twenty-year-old named Christopher Knight who went missing in the wilds of Maine in 1986.

For nearly three decades, he lived all alone in the wilderness, stealing small supplies from nearby houses and somehow managing to survive some very brutal winters. During that time, he did not interact with anyone until he was arrested for theft in 2013.

Drawn from interviews with the man, the work looks into why he left human society, the moral questions of his solitude, and how he survived all alone for nearly thirty years.

Michael Finkel: Awards & Accolades

Michael Finkel books have been nominated for multiple awards, The Stranger in the Woods was nominated for the Goodreads Awards, Best Nonfiction, in 2017. The Art Thief was nominated for the Goodreads Awards, Best Nonfiction, in 2023 as well as the Crime Writer's Association Award - Non-Fiction Dagger in 2024, Alex Awards - Best Book in 2024.

Related Authors

Fans of Michael Finkel also enjoy these authors:

1. Stephen King, author of The Dark Tower Series.
2. Fredrik Backman, author of: A Man Called Ove.
3. Kristin Hannah, author of: The Nightingale.
4. J.K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter Series.
5. James Patterson, author of the Alex Cross Series.

Michael Finkel: F.A.Q