Solitude, Survival, and the Cost of Disappearing: A Review of The Stranger in the Woods by Michael Finkel
Solitude, Survival, and the Cost of Disappearing: A Review of The Stranger in the Woods by Michael Finkel Narrated by Mark Bramhall | Nonfiction | Biography | Nature | 209 pages | First published March 7, 2017 Rating: ★★★★☆ What would it take to walk away from modern life—not for a weekend or a season, but for nearly three decades? In The Stranger in the Woods: The Extraordinary Story of the Last True Hermit , journalist Michael Finkel recounts the remarkable life of Christopher Knight, a man who entered the Maine woods in 1986 and remained almost entirely alone for twenty-seven years. Knight survived without employment, permanent shelter, or meaningful human contact until his arrest in 2013 finally ended his isolation. His story initially sounds like an extreme fantasy of escape: abandoning noise, expectations, obligations, and social pressures for a quiet existence in nature. The reality, however, is far more complicated. Knight’s solitude depended on repeated burglaries of ne...