He wrote the novels The Shack, Cross Roads, Eve, and the religious book Lies We Believe About God.

Young is the oldest of four, born May 11, 1955, in Grande Prairie, Alberta, Canada, but the majority of his first decade was lived with his missionary parents in the highlands of Netherlands New Guinea (West Papua), among the Dani, a central highlands people of western New Guinea.

These became his family and as the first white child and outsider who ever spoke their language, he was granted unusual access into their culture and community.

Two of his close friends encouraged him to have it published, and assisted with some editing and rewriting in order to prepare the manuscript for publication.

The company spent only C$200 in advertising;[3] word-of-mouth referrals eventually drove the book to number one on the New York Times trade paperback fiction best-seller list in June 2008.