THE BOOKS
The Art Thief
The Art Thief chronicles one of the most outrageous crime sprees in history: In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Stéphane Breitwieser stole from more than 200 museums and galleries across Europe, amassing a collection worth an estimated $2 billion.
The Stranger In The Woods
This book spent five weeks on the New York Times best-seller list. One morning in 2013, I read about a man who had fled the world at age 20, lived alone in a tent in central Maine, and apparently spent 10,000 consecutive days completely silent.
True Story
While on the run, Christian Longo had taken on a new identity, which is not a surprising action for a Most Wanted fugitive. Except that the identity he took on was mine. He told many of the people he met that his name was Michael Finkel, and that he was a writer for the New York Times.
Alpine Circus
For ten years -- the entirety of my 20s -- I spent much of my time roaming the world with a pair of skis, using the sport as a point of connectivity to explore many of the planet’s mountain cultures. Alpine Circus is a collection of 17 of these adventures.
Adventure, Travel, and War Reporting
I have been a full-time journalist for nearly 30 years, writing for publications like National Geographic and The New York Times Magazine.
I am willing to speak about my career in general, or about topics as varied as the global migrant dilemma, the Israeli-Palestinian situation, and what it is like to descend into the center of an active volcano.
I have personally visited with active terrorists in Afghanistan, Indonesia, and the Palestinian territories, and can offer first-hand insight into how terrorists think, why they become committed to terrorism, why they believe what they do, and how the United States, and the world, can far more effectively combat terrorism.