Jesse Fink (left, with DEA Special Agent Eric Kolbinsky, centre, and Luis Navia in St. Petersburg, Florida) has been called ‘detective like’ by America’s Library Journal magazine.
He is the author of five non-fiction books and has been published in over 20 countries and 13 foreign languages: French, German, Spanish, Italian, Czech, Swedish, Japanese, Portuguese, Danish, Serbian, Russian, Estonian and Lithuanian. His two most recent books, PURE NARCO and BON: THE LAST HIGHWAY, have also been released in audio editions.
Fink was born in London, England, in 1973 and raised in Sydney, Australia, by his Australian parents. He is the father of an adult daughter and holds dual UK-Australia citizenship.
Fink worked for five years as senior editor of non-fiction at HarperCollins Publishers, helming acclaimed books such as David Day’s John Curtin: A Life and Chifley, Jill Margo’s Frank Lowy, Christopher Kremmer’s The Carpet Wars and George Negus’s The World from Italy, among dozens of other titles. After leaving publishing, Fink won several prestigious sportswriting awards as a journalist for Inside Sport magazine, which he served as deputy editor from 2003 to 2006. In 2003 he was nominated for a Walkley Award for Coverage of Sport, Australia’s top journalism prize.
In 2006, Fink began writing daily soccer blogs for Fox Sports Australia. The following year he wrote his first book, 15 DAYS IN JUNE, (Hardie Grant, 2007), the story of Australia’s performance at the 2006 FIFA World Cup and its forgotten history in Asian football. The book has since been re-released in two digital editions and a print edition. For the next five years, Fink’s sportswriting went on to appear on a number of websites throughout Australia, Asia and Europe, including ESPN Star Sports and Fox Sports Asia. His column for SBS Television’s The World Game was the most read soccer blog in Australia.
In 2011 Fink wrote a feature about divorce for Australian marie claire. It ended up securing him a book deal with Hachette Australia, which published his memoir, LAID BARE, the following year. Men’s Health praised the book as ‘X-rated, honest and compelling’, while the Herald Sun described it as ‘Penthouse Letters with post-orgasmic guilt… an engrossing read’. Fink’s writing on sex and relationships went on to appear in several national magazines, notably News Limited’s Sunday Style.
His next book, THE YOUNGS: THE BROTHERS WHO BUILT AC/DC, was published by Penguin Random House Australia in 2013 and by St Martin’s Press in the United States in 2014, as well as over a dozen European, South American and Asian countries. A number-one bestselling Amazon music biography in the United States, Germany and United Kingdom, it was chosen among PRI Public Radio International’s Best Books of 2014 and featured in The New Yorker. The book was also a number-one national bestseller in Denmark, a first for an Australian author.
In 2017, Fink released two books: an updated ‘author’s cut’ edition of LAID BARE (Xoum Publishing) and the momentous BON: THE LAST HIGHWAY (Penguin Random House Australia, ECW Press, Black & White Publishing, Hannibal Verlag, Editora Saraiva, Disk Union, Le Castor Astral, Vaktel Forlag), a 500-page biography of AC/DC singer Bon Scott. Bon was a #1 music biography in Sweden, the United Kingdom and France, chosen for five Book of the Year lists, and the cover story in the December 2017 issue of Classic Rock. It is now widely considered the definitive biography of the AC/DC legend.
In 2020, Fink’s fifth book, PURE NARCO (Penguin Random House Australia, John Blake Publishing, Rowman & Littlefield, Äripäev), was released. It tells the life story of Cuban-American cocaine trafficker Luis Navia and Navia’s dramatic arrest in Venezuela by agents of the DEA and United States Customs Service. Pure Narco has been optioned for an American TV series and is represented by APA in Los Angeles.
Fink’s sixth book – another non-fiction biography – is slated for release by Penguin Random House Australia in August 2023. He is attracted to stories of mavericks, eccentrics, the misunderstood, forgotten heroes and underdogs.
Fink has been interviewed by, provided opinion for or been quoted by media outlets such as The New Yorker, CNN, BBC Sport, Fox News, Forbes, The Washington Post, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Independent, The Seattle Times, The Omaha World-Herald, Folha de S. Paulo (Brazil), Ultimate Classic Rock, Irish Times, Kerrang!, Loudwire, Classic Rock, The Guardian, Salon, Billboard, New Zealand Herald, Rolling Stone (Germany, Russia, Spain, Indonesia, Australia, Brazil), El Pais (Spain, Uruguay, Brazil), The Arizona Daily Star, The Canton Repository, Metal Hammer, Gibson.com, The Christian Science Monitor, Storie (Italy), Sky News (UK), World Football Insider, The Wall Street Journal, Who Magazine, Yahoo!7 Sport (Australia), The Phnom Penh Post (Cambodia), The National (Abu Dhabi), The Australian, Double J, The Sydney Morning Herald, Madison (Australia), The Age, The Gold Coast Bulletin, Yonhap News (South Korea), The New Paper (Singapore), ICI Radio-Canada (Canada), Jornal da Paraiba (Brazil), Hindu Business Line (India), La Repubblica (Italy), O Estadao de S. Paulo (Brazil), Playboy (Brazil), O Globo (Brazil), Vorterix (Argentina), Pagina 12 (Argentina), Eurosport (France), La Voz (Argentina), La Nacion (Argentina), La Gaceta (Argentina), La Prensa (Argentina), Scottish Field (UK), Correio de Bahia (Brazil), Blitz (Portugal), The Courier & Advertiser (UK), Ekstra Bladet (Denmark), Crime Monthly (UK), Big Issue North (UK) and DNA Sunday (India), among many others.
He has appeared as a guest on TV programs Sunrise (Seven Network, Australia), Studio 10 (Ten Network, Australia), Mornings (Nine Network, Australia), Weekend Today (Nine Network, Australia), The Project (Ten Network, Australia), The Morning Show (Seven Network, Australia), Sky News Australia (Australian News Channel, Australia), Insight (SBS, Australia), 7.30 (ABC, Australia), RTL (Germany), and Bola@Mamak (Astro SuperSport 811 & SuperSport HD 831, Malaysia).
He has been interviewed on radio stations ABC Sydney, ABC Radio National, ABC Canberra, ABC Brisbane, ABC Hobart, ABC North West WA, ABC Perth, ABC Alice Springs, ABC Adelaide, ABC Darwin, ABC Radio Australia, ABC Newcastle, ABC South West WA, Spirit Radio, 96FM Perth, Triple M Sydney, 5AA Adelaide, 2SM Super Radio Network, 2GB 873 AM, Radio West, Sea FM 90.9, 93.9 Bay FM, 88.3 Southern FM, 88.6 Plenty Valley FM, 4KQ, 6PR, 1116 SEN, Zinc Central Queensland, Rock 102 (Fargo, North Dakota), WZLX (Boston, Massachusetts), KMED (Medford/Ashland, Oregon), WRFX (Charlotte, North Carolina), WZOC (South Bend, Indiana), 92 KQRS (Minneapolis, Minnesota), 105.5 WDHA (Morristown, New Jersey), KNEN (Norfolk, Nebraska), KTRS (St Louis, Missouri), FM96 (Ontario, Canada), WBIG (Chicago, Illinois), WKBN (Youngstown, Ohio), 101.9 The Fox (Ontario, Canada), KSLX (Phoenix, Arizona), KLPX (Tucson, Arizona), WPYX (Albany, New York), WKSQ (Bangor, Maine), SiriusXM (New York, New York), TK99 (Syracuse, New York), WCZX (Detroit, Illinois), WIFC (Milwaukee, Wisconsin), KKBZ (Fresno, California), WGRF (Buffalo, New York), KLPX (Tucson, Arizona), Coast to Coast AM (Sherman Oaks, California), SiriusXM Canada (Toronto, Canada), Radio New Zealand, Rockomotora (Argentina), Radio Cantilo (Argentina), 89FM (Brazil), Wikimetal (Brazil), BBC World Service (UK) and countless others.
Online, he has appeared on podcasts such as Booked on Rock, Songs of Note, Talk Is Jericho, No Fucking Regrets, Let There Be Talk and many more.
INTERNATIONAL EDITIONS
PURE NARCO (2020/21/22)
Australia (Penguin Books)
Australia (Penguin Books, mass-market edition)
United Kingdom (John Blake Publishing)
North America (Rowman & Littlefield)
Estonia (Äripäev)
BON: THE LAST HIGHWAY (2017/18/22)
Australia (Penguin Books)
Australia (Penguin Books, updated edition)
North America (ECW Press)
North America (ECW Press, updated edition)
United Kingdom (Black & White)
United Kingdom (Black & White, updated edition)
Brazil (Editora Saraiva)
Japan (Disk Union)
France (Le Castor Astral)
Germany (Hannibal Verlag)
Sweden (Vaktel Forlag)
THE YOUNGS: THE BROTHERS WHO BUILT AC/DC (2013/14/15)
Australia (Random House)
Australia (Random House, updated edition)
North America (St Martin’s Press)
North America (St Martin’s Press, updated edition)
United Kingdom (Black & White)
United Kingdom (Black & White, updated edition)
Germany (Hannibal Verlag)
Denmark (People’s Press)
Italy (Giunti Editore)
France (Camion Blanc)
Brazil (Gutenberg)
Argentina/Chile (Planeta)
India (HarperCollins)
Serbia (Dereta)
Czech Republic (Volvox Globator)
Lithuania (Versus Aureus)
Japan (Disk Union)
Russia (AST)
Spain (Libros Cupula)
LAID BARE (2012/17)
Australia (Hachette)
Australia (Xoum Publishing, updated edition)
15 DAYS IN JUNE (2007/14/21/22)
Australia (Hardie Grant)
Australia (Xoum Publishing, abridged digital edition)
Australia (Ligature, digital edition)
Australia (Booktopia, new edition)
