About the Author

Robert M Goldstein is a Seattle-based writer. His critically acclaimed first book, The Gentleman from Finland -- Adventures on the Trans-Siberian Express, earned the Benjamin Franklin Award for best travel book published by an independent publisher in North America in 2005. His second book, Riding with Reindeer--A Bicycle Odyssey through Finland, Lapland, and Arctic Norway, received the INDIE Book Award Silver Medal. Goldstein was born in Los Angeles, but grew up not far from the train tracks in Santa Clara, California. After graduating from Oregon State University with a degree in technical journalism, he worked as a reporter for the Walla Walla Union-Bulletin and then the Bellevue Journal-American. In the late 1980s, his career took a different direction after he received his master's degree in Public Administration from the University of Washington. Before retiring in 2017, he held a variety of administrative posts, including Chief Financial Officer for the Seattle Public Library System, and later as CFO of the Kitsap Regional Library System. He has traveled widely, and in addition to his travel books has published articles on Nepal, the Soviet Union, Israel, Bhutan, China, and the Arctic. He has a fondness for beer.