Jackie Hassefras of the Camden East Branch of the County of Lennox & Addington Libraries recently enjoyed a non-fiction book about “the last true hermit.”

“I just finished reading Stranger in the Woods: the Extraordinary Story of the Last True Hermit by Michael Finkel”, says Jackie. “When Christopher Knight [the subject of the book] was 20 years old, he parked his car on a back road in rural Maine, threw the car keys onto the console, and walked into the woods without a compass or map. He wasn't seen or heard from again for 27 years Knight's disappearance was no accident. He wanted to live a life in total isolation.”

Knight was so determined to avoid detection that he says he never made a single fire — even in the dead of winter. Locals knew him only as the "North Pond hermit," a mysterious thief who repeatedly broke into the local cabins to steal books, food and propane. Knight was so elusive that some people thought he was an urban legend. For decades, law enforcement didn't even know his name. When he was finally caught and arrested while stealing from a local camp in 2013, Knight was 47 years old.

“This book was a fast read and well written by a respected journalist,” Jackie says. “As a nature lover and having a remote off-grid cabin, I could identify with Knight’s need for isolation. His situation, however, spiraled to extreme as he did not ‘work’ for a living but funded his basic needs through robbery. Knight committed over 40 robberies during his 27 years in the woods.”

To learn more about the “the last true hermit”, you can reserve Stranger in the Woods by Michael Finkel in print, e-book or e-audiobook formats at your branch of the County of Lennox & Addington Libraries or by clicking here