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    The Stranger in the Woods: The extraordinary story of the last true hermit
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    The Stranger in the Woods: The extraordinary story of the last true hermit
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    The Stranger in the Woods: The extraordinary story of the last true hermit
    Ebook203 pages3 hours

    The Stranger in the Woods: The extraordinary story of the last true hermit

    By Michael Finkel

    4/5

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    About this ebook

    *THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER*

    Could you leave behind all that you know and live in solitude for three decades? This is the extraordinary story of the last true hermit - Christopher Knight. 

    'This was a breath-taking book to read     and many weeks later I am still thinking about the implications for our society and - by extension - for my own life'  Sebastian Junger, bestselling author of The Perfect Storm 

    'A wry meditation on one man's attempt to escape life's distractions and look inwards, to find meaning not by doing, but by being'
    Martin Sixsmith, bestselling author of Philomena and Ayesha's Gift

    'Not all heroes wear capes. My latest one is a man called Christopher Knight – a silent idol for anyone who has felt the urge to just sack it all off and live the life of a hermit' Lucy Mangan, Stylist 

    'An extraordinary story     about solitude, community, identity and freedom' Guardian 

    'A meditation on solitude, wildness and survival. It is also, unexpectedly, a tribute to the joys of reading' The Wall Street Journal 

    In 1986, twenty-year-old Christopher Knight left his home in Massachusetts, drove to Maine, and disappeared into the woods.

    He would not speak to another human being until three decades later when he was arrested for stealing food. 

    Christopher survived by his wits and courage, developing ingenious ways to store food and water in order to avoid freezing to death in his tent during the harsh Maine winters. He broke into nearby cottages for food, clothes, reading material and other provisions, taking only what he needed. In the process, he unwittingly terrified a community unable to solve the mysterious burglaries. Myths abounded amongst the locals eager to find this legendary hermit. 

    Based on extensive interviews with Knight himself, this is a vividly detailed account of his secluded life and the challenges he faced returning to the world. The Stranger in the Woods is a riveting story of survival that asks fundamental questions about solitude and what makes for a good life.

    Above all, this is a deeply moving portrait of a man determined to live life his own way. 
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster UK
    Release dateMar 9, 2017
    ISBN9781471151996
    Unavailable
    The Stranger in the Woods: The extraordinary story of the last true hermit
    Author

    Michael Finkel

    Michael Finkel is the author of The Stranger in the Woods, an international bestseller, and True Story, which was adapted into a 2015 major motion picture starring James Franco and Jonah Hill. He has reported from more than 50 countries and written for National Geographic, GQ, Rolling Stone, Esquire, Vanity Fair, The Atlantic, and The New York Times Magazine. His work has been anthologized in The Best American Sportswriting, The Best American Science and Nature Writing, The Best American Travel Writing, and The Best American Non-Required Reading. He lives with his family in western Montana and southern France.

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    Reviews for The Stranger in the Woods

    4/5

    611 ratings69 reviews

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    • 5/5
      I picked this book up on a whim at my local library, and I'm so glad I did.

      Chris Knight is a fascinating anomaly in our media-fueled society, and while he committed some egregious crimes in the 27 years he spent alone in the woods, a part of me was impressed with what he had to say about life. Finkel should be proud of the tireless effort he took to interview and write about Chris. While I may not agree with everything Chris had to say, I still think his thoughts and insight are valuable and worth reflecting upon.
    • 3/5
      Puzzling true story of a young man who simply decided, one day in 1986, to walk into the Maine woods and disappear into a life of solitude. Creating his own secluded campsite in the wilds near a summer camp area, Christopher Knight lived alone, sustaining himself by stealing food and other necessities from the summer cabins in the area. Caught during one of the burglaries in 2013, his story came to the attention of freelance writer Michael Finkel, who attempts here to make some sense of Christopher Knight. He never really does so.
    • 5/5
      A fascinating book. When he was caught, I had read about this guy who lived by himself in the Maine woods for 27 years, and the story fascinated me then as well. How did he manage? What were his living circumstances like? And why?Mostly, the book answered my questions except for the why. Finkel painted an excellent picture of Knight's tent and bed and stove and "storeroom" and even his toilet area; and described all the supplies he had to manage to steal over the years. And I guess the author did as good a job as he could have, given that he was limited to what Knight was willing to tell him. But I would still love to know why, and to read a more detailed account of all those years, especially how it was in the cold Maine winters. On the other hand, could have done without the accounts of all the other hermits, which just seemed to pad the book.Christopher Knight, if you happen to read this, and if you happened to keep a journal, please publish!
    • 4/5
      Me after one drink for weeks after reading this book: “ there was this one guy...and he lived hidden in the woods...and he didn’t see or talk to a single person...for 27 years!” Whether you are the kind of person who asks “how?” or “why?”, this is a fascinating read.
    • 4/5
      Trempealeau County Reads choice. Intriguing story of Knight makes one think of what solitude can do and the choices we make.
    • 4/5
      The remarkable true story of a man who lived alone in the woods of Maine for 27 years.
    • 4/5
      Puzzling true story of a young man who simply decided, one day in 1986, to walk into the Maine woods and disappear into a life of solitude. Creating his own secluded campsite in the wilds near a summer camp area, Christopher Knight lived alone, sustaining himself by stealing food and other necessities from the summer cabins in the area. Caught during one of the burglaries in 2013, his story came to the attention of freelance writer Michael Finkel, who attempts here to make some sense of Christopher Knight.
    • 3/5
      There's a lot here that's about the nature of solitude, the history of hermits, etc, and those sections are good. Without them, this book would have been half its length. The actual story of Christopher Knight, the title "character", reads like a high school book report of facts strung together in choppy sentences with very little narrative. I understand the difficulty of writing a book about a reclusive person when that person's rare words are your only real source, but the writer chooses his subject so as a reader I feel reasonable in faulting him for trying to draw out a collection of facts and details well beyond their scope into a book-length story.
    • 4/5
      This is a haunting and intriguing story about a young American man, Christopher Knight, who in 1986 decided, apparently on the spur of the moment, to abandon his life and live in the midst of thick forest in Maine. He was there for 27 years, almost entirely without speaking to a single other human being and may, in the author's words, be "the most solitary known person in all of human history". He supported this lifestyle choice through theft of food and other necessities (including a wide range of books) from holiday cabins around the nearby lakes. Becoming over time the legendary (and/or notorious) North Pond hermit, he was eventually captured during a raid on a canteen in April 2013. Charged with a series of burglaries (though only a fraction of those he had actually committed), he was imprisoned for seven months. Reactions to Knight and his activities varied widely, from sympathy for his sense of alienation from a world he could not understand or relate to, coupled with offers to let him live alone again with goods supplied to him legally, to disdain for the crimes he had committed and the sense of insecurity they had generated among the residents of the North Pond holiday cabins - and sometimes combinations of these differing attitudes. The author, himself an introvert with an admitted love for solitude, makes great efforts to understand Knight's mindset, without minimising his offences. He examines the role of hermits and other recluses in various historical and contemporary societies, and attitudes towards solitude from various writers, for example Ralph Waldo Emerson, who wrote that: “People are to be taken in very small doses. Nothing can bring you peace but yourself”, or Sartre who wrote “Hell is other people”. The author had several difficult conversations with Knight in prison; the latter articulated his own motives thus: “What I miss most in the woods is somewhere in between quiet and solitude. What I miss most is stillness”; seeing himself as a square peg, one that everybody he encounters "is smashing at him, pounding on him, trying to jam him into a round hole." An interesting read that prompts much reflection on the nature of relationships between individuals and society, and the vastly differing needs different individuals have for these relationships (or for their absence).
    • 3/5
      A short review: it was perhaps "okay".

      A longer review: the story was good, but I had problems with the journalism.

      An even longer review, although unnecessary, is as follows.

      Stranger in the Woods is the story of Chris Knight, a “hermit” who dedicated 27 years to living in the woods of Maine. Author Michael Finkel became fascinated with the story of a man who decided to take himself out of the cycle of the world and build a home (tent) nestled behind large craggy rocks and overgrowth. To survive, he stole food from the surrounding cabins, keeping the small community of the Jarsay on edge. The correspondence in this book came from Finkel writing letters to Knight while he was in jail, serving out a seven-month sentence for his burglaries. Finkel visited Knight in jail, to the chagrin of Knight himself. Finkel then began to come around Knight's family who wanted nothing to do with Finkel and his reporting. This is where my distaste for this book begins. It feels like Finkel is just a TMZ crew member bothering people to get his story. As the story unfurls, we see the opinions of the neighbors who installed security systems out of fear, feeling their safety ripped from them. Finkel, instead of creating an unbiased view, seems to empathize with this “hermit”, who was no hermit at all, but an unsocial man who made due by stealing from the less fortunate so he could live alone.

      3.5 stars for the story, 3 stars for the writing and reporting.
    • 3/5
      I had not heard about this guy, so I was interested in reading about a guy that would disappear into the woods of Maine. He lived there 27 years before being caught. It was pretty obvious from the writing that the hermit did not want to be interviewed. Not sure what he thought about a book being written about him, but he did talk to the author a few times. I enjoyed most of the book. I thought it was interesting how he survived all those years outside in Maine. He did steal, so that was not good.
    • 5/5
      this was a fascinating book, gave you a insight into the mind and thinking of the man. i also loved reading about what and how he got rid of all the things he no longer used. If you ever walked or camped in the woods by your self for the quite think about doing that times 27 years
    • 5/5
      I'm thankful Michael Finkel went the extra mile to document Chris Knight's story. A fascinating account of a unique man who managed to survive 27 years alone in the Maine woods and, probably more surprisingly, his reintegration into modern society.
    • 4/5
      Utterly fascinating account of the life of a man who disappeared into the Maine woods in 1986 at the age of 20, and lived there completely alone for the next 27 years. He survived by being extremely cautious and resourceful, and by selectively stealing food and other necessities (including books) from cabins and camps when the occupants were away. After reading this account, I am inclined to agree with the man himself, who characterized Thoreau as a "dilettante". Highly recommended.February 2017
    • 4/5
      A rather intriguing book dealing with a modern day hermit who was determined to live completely on his own out in the woods of Maine. Problem being he needed some form of support which he found in stealing. The author did a great job in engaging us into what this individual was like and his motivations. It brought into question a lot of questions about how autonomous any of us can be in a society that for the most part demands participation. A well done thought provoking book.
    • 5/5
      Finkel weaves a fascinating and philosophical story of a man who lived alone in the woods for over 25 years. Weaving together investigative journalism, literary critic, psychology, and philosophy, through Knight (the hermit), Finkel explores solitude, what makes a person seek it, and what happens when Knight was forcibly brought back into society.This book spoke to my introvert and hermit-like tendencies to a degree that I have never experienced. I also really appreciated the reading list Finkel provided at the end.
    • 4/5
      I did the audio book while reading my physical copy of this. It was absolutely fascinating! I definitely think I want to do some further reading on the topic of isolation and being solitary. If it strikes your fancy it's definitely worth picking up.
    • 4/5
      I enjoyed this book, which tells the story of Christopher Knight, who lived in total isolation in the woods of Maine for several decades. One day, he just walked away from his life and from all human contact. The book looks at Knight's experiences in the woods, and also explores a little bit about different types of hermits, and psychological and physical challenges of being alone. Very interesting!
    • 4/5
      The book's subtitle brands this "extraordinary story." It's not an understatement. Finkel's narrative is never boring and offers some fascinating insights into the life of a hermit who spent more than a quarter century in self-imposed exile. My one problem -- and it's probably not the author's fault -- is that I felt at the very end of the book that I really didn't quite understand what made Christopher Knight "tick." Another lingering concern is actually addressed by the author. I kept wondering if Knight might have received some assistance during his 27-year odyssey. Still, "The Stranger in the Woods" is a captivating story.
    • 4/5
      It truly was an extraordinary story about an extraordinary person who just wanted to disappear from the world and live by himself. Very, very interesting story with a lot of history of other groups or individuals who chose to do the same thing. How he survived for so long within such close proximity to others is astounding. Heard about this book on CBC and knew I had to read it.
    • 4/5
      Fascinating story about a 20 year old man who just left the world one day, driving his car til he couldn't and holing up for 27 years in the Maine woods. He stole from nearby camps for all his needs (food, batteries, clothes, etc.) but talked to no one and was at peace. Then he was finally caught. We are not allowed access to his deep feeling and emotions or thoughts and psyche. The author, Michael Finkel, was overly determined to mine them and his perseverance was an unwelcome intrusion on this man. Finkel did an excellent job of research and interviewing anyone who had anything to do with the case. It seemed that Finkel found a person he thought was very similar to himself and he was hellbent on figuring out what made the hermit tick. For me, this detracted from my enjoyment of the book as I felt Finkel was harassing the hermit who was under no compulsion to bare his soul to the world he tried to escape.
    • 4/5
      One day, twenty-year-old Christopher Knight abandoned his car and walked off into the woods of Maine. He didn't come out for 27 years, and during that time he effectively did not talk to or interact with another human being, but survived by breaking into nearby vacation cabins while their owners were away to steal food and supplies. By the time he was finally caught in the act, he was something of a local legend: the elusive Hermit of North Pond.I find Knight and his story fascinating. He is, unsurprisingly, not much of a talker, but the things he does say are interesting, as are the details of his camp and how he survived there. (In Maine! Through the winters! I cannot even imagine doing that.) Unfortunately, Michael Finkel, the journalist who pursued his story and the author of this book, rubs me the wrong way a little, somehow. Maybe it's the uncomfortable feeling at times that he's imposing himself on a man who would rather be left alone. Maybe it's the sense that he projects onto Knight a little too much in his attempts to understand him. Maybe it's partly the chapter he devotes to basically talking about how freakish the desire to be solitary is, which, as an introvert, I cannot help but take exception to. Probably a lot of it is just him getting off on the wrong foot with me by opening the book with a couple of chapters dramatizing Knight's apprehension in the style of a bad novel, a journalistic gimmick I am coming to dislike intensely.Whatever the source of my feelings, I found I liked his writing just fine when he was organizing and conveying Knight's own words or describing the facts of his situation, but less so when he let his own personality intrude a little more. And I think the book could have easily done without the sections about the history of hermits and the psychology of solitude and so forth. In theory, I would think all of that could be interesting, but in practice, I don't think Finkel's treatment of these subjects is nearly as profound as he believes it is, and a lot of it ends up feeling like padding. Which maybe it is. Knight is, in the end, still largely a mysterious figure and there really is a limited amount to be said about him. Maybe not enough to completely support a 200-page book.All of which sounds a little more negative than I maybe quite mean to be. Honestly, I did find Knight's story very much worth reading, I just wish I felt a little less lukewarm about the execution.
    • 3/5
      My twelve-year-old and I were side by side at the sink, coring strawberries that we had picked this morning. "Sometimes," she said, "I think it would be nice to be invisible. I like to watch things happening and not participate sometimes."I'm not sure if it's entirely the same as what my daughter was talking about, but invisibility is something I crave sometimes myself, the freedom of not being seen, not for the purpose of doing anything in particular but just to take a break from being someone to other people for a while, and maybe to do my grocery shopping without small-talk. When my daughter made this comment about being invisible, it occurred to me that this is what Christopher Knight managed to do for twenty-seven years. Reading about Knight's experience, I was intrigued by the idea that our self-identity is bound so tightly to our interactions and relationships that if we remove those interactions and relationships, we in some way lose our sense of self. It's both a comforting and an unsettling thought, similar to contemplating the oneness, loss of self, and ultimate equanimity we'll all experience in death (I've not been dead, as far as I can remember, so I'm not positive this is how it is, but it's what I imagine).The story of Knight and how he attained invisibility without dying was interesting, as were the small glimpses we got of his family, but I felt very unsettled by the way in which the author pushed himself into Knight's life. It's bad enough that Knight was ripped from the solitary life in which he'd found contentment, but then to have the author following him around and showing up when Knight asked him---told him---not to just seems pushy and inconsiderate. There are times when Knight clearly rejects the author, and rather than seeing it as a rejection of himself and the connection he's trying to make, the author chooses to see it as a quirk of Knight's personality that he can safely shrug off. I felt squirmy reading about the author's persistence, and I didn't know if I could trust his interpretation of the situation. Once I suspected his view of his relationship with Knight, I began to suspect his point of view throughout the book. Why did the author insert himself into the story so much? Why couldn't it have just been about Knight and not about the author's relationship with him? I can think of many reasons, but once I started to question the author, I found it difficult not to question his motives from the beginning, and that tarnished my experience of the book.At the end of the book, there is "A Note on the Reporting," in which it appears that the author puts a lot of importance on how nice people are to him, not really considering that perhaps this is just the way people in this particular community respond to a stranger showing up unannounced. Reading this, I suspect that there's another story here that someone else could write about the author and his need to be important to people he's never met.
    • 4/5
      Christopher Knight was complicit in wanting his story told, so we should not feel guilty about peering into the world of an extreme introvert. Indeed it's a story of superlatives - during his 27 years of self-imposed solitude he spoke a handful of words to other humans, and most of those just weeks before he was arrested. One struggles to think of any case like this in history, even religious hermits had occasional human contact. It's truly remarkable and Michael Finkel has done a fantastic job telling the course of events, but also trying to understand Knight's motivations and condition, something doctors never fully diagnosed. It turns out there may be a genetic component and some entire families are naturally hermit-like which means there are areas of the country populated with these sorts of reclusive people, though not to the extreme of Knight. This is a short book but one that will stay with you, a very unusual story well-told.
    • 2/5
      This is the true story of Christopher Knight, who disappeared into the woods of Maine in 1986 and lived there alone for 27 years, speaking to another person only once during that time. He built a campsite for himself in a secluded glen that was surprisingly close to "civilization"--it was near a pond with many summer cabins and a summer camp surrounding it. He survived by stealing whatever he needed, from food to batteries to bedding, from the cabins and the camp. As Finkel tells Christopher's story, he weaves in research on solitude and hermits.This book has gotten pretty good reviews on LT, but it did not engage me. First, I was bothered by how intrusive the author was. Christopher and his family made it explicitly clear that they did not want to be contacted or to discuss this, yet Finkel persisted, and manipulated his way into a few interviews with Christopher. Finkel's own story, of how he contacted Christopher and developed the story takes up at least as much of this narrative as does Christopher's experiences in the woods. I had no interest in Finkel's investigative techniques, and wanted to know more about Christopher's actions and motivations.I found there was little or no insight into why Christopher did what he did, or into the psychological effects his solitude had on him. While the author includes his research into solitude and hermits, Finkel does not connect this general research to the particular case of Christopher. Rather than Christopher having intellectual or spiritual reasons for his actions in seeking solitude, it seems more likely that Christopher was merely a mentally unbalanced man who wanted to be left alone. I found much of this aspect of the book to be random and rambling, and it had the feel of the padding necessary to fill a story the length of a newspaper article to book length.A more minor point is that if the reader is expecting a story of survival in the woods--hunting, fishing, chopping down trees to build a shelter, etc.--this is not that story. Christopher did not really survive by his wits--he stole everything he needed to subsist (including, by the way, reading materials). The owners of the cabins and the summer camp lived for 27 years with the specter of a mysterious burglar targeting their possessions, as well as their peace of mind.Maybe I wasn't in the right mood for this, but I'm very glad it was only a library book.2 stars
    • 5/5
      I listened to the Audible version of this book and absolutely loved it. I gave it 4 1/2 stars because the reader was great, the subject of the story was fascinating and it was very thought provoking as to what solitude and aloneness means to different people.
    • 4/5
      Really enjoyed this quick read.
    • 4/5
      Well told story. A biography which includes historical context of hermits, mental conditions, and solo living. The author displays both good story telling and research in this enjoyable read. I'm not ready to head for the hills, but I feel like I have a good idea of what it would be like.
    • 5/5
      "Silence, it appears, is not the opposite of sound. It is another world altogether, literally offering a deeper level of thought, a journey to the bedrock of the self." For over a quarter of a century, the people of North Pond, Maine lived in fear of a boogeyman. An enigmatic thief, that had been breaking into the cabins, of these deep, rural woods, year after year, stealing foodstuffs, clothes and other items. This ghost left no clues and had eluded capture.In 2013, thanks to the diligence of a park ranger, this mystery was solved. Christopher Knight had been living in these woods, like a hermit for twenty-seven years, having virtually no human contact, living off the spoils of what he stole.The author befriended Knight while in prison, so was able to get intimate details into what made Knight tick and what drove him into the woods. This is an excellent story of a modern hermit. I love narrative nonfiction and this totally fits the bill.
    • 5/5
      I could not put this book down. What a fascinating story of a life that is hard to fathom at first (even makes you kind of angry - all the thefts), but then, after while, makes an infinite amount of sense. The book cracked open my mind on many issues, but interestingly, how misguided our concepts, diagnoses and such of "mental health" may be; and also those of society. There is such depth and wisdom to be found from folks who lead independent and different lives, yet we so quickly brandish them mentally disabled. You really have to question whether outliers, such as Christopher Knight, don't have a whole lot more figured out than the rest of us. There are some funny exchanges on how our lives are actually going backwards by technology (e.g., texts being a return to morse code). This also ended up being a bit of a literary treasure trove (which I think Knight would have liked), as he was a big, big reader and it was relegated to the books he stole from others' cabins. But the discussions on philosophy, being alone and many unanswerable questions, were so interesting. Knight is a fascinating, quirky, humorous, brutally honest, stoic and grumpy guy. Finkel was lucky to get real access to him, even if it was limited. Highly recommended for a thought-provoking read light years off the beaten path.