David Grann

Interweaves the story of British explorer Percy Fawcett, who vanished during a 1925 expedition into the Amazon, with the author's own quest to uncover the mysteries surrounding Fawcett's final journey and the secrets of what lies deep in the Amazon jungle.

A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon

The Lost City of Z

After stumbling upon a hidden trove of diaries, New Yorker writer David Grann set out to solve "the greatest exploration mystery of the twentieth century": what happened to British explorer Percy Fawcett. In 1925 Fawcett ventured into the Amazon to find an ancient civilization. For centuries Europeans believed the world's largest jungle concealed the glittering El Dorado. Thousands had died looking for it, leaving many convinced that the Amazon was truly inimical to humankind. But Fawcett had spent years building his scientific case. Captivating the imagination of millions, he embarked with his 21-year-old son, determined to prove that this ancient civilization--which he dubbed "Z"--existed. Then he and his expedition vanished. Fawcett's fate--and the clues he left behind--became an obsession for hundreds who followed him. As Grann delved deeper into Fawcett's mystery, and the greater mystery of the Amazon, he found himself irresistibly drawn into the "green hell."--From publisher description.

a tale of deadly obsession in the Amazon

The lost city of Z

Patrick Book

This is about as satisfying as a book like this can be, I expect.

Victoria

The switch between Fawcett and Grann's POV is a favorite setup of mine and worked to draw me in and made me want to know more about Fawcett and the Lost City of Z.

The #1 New York Times bestseller from the author of Killers of the Flower Moon In 1925, the legendary British explorer Percy Fawcett ventured into the Amazon jungle, in search of a fabled civilization. He never returned. Over the years countless perished trying to find evidence of his party and the place he called “The Lost City of Z.” In this masterpiece of narrative nonfiction, journalist David Grann interweaves the spellbinding stories of Fawcett’s quest for “Z” and his own journey into the deadly jungle, as he unravels the greatest exploration mystery of the twentieth century.

Sonja H

Grann, has written a very detailed report about Fawcetts and his own adventure. I enjoyed reading this book a lot.

Melody Izard

I'm all about adventure, but I tell you, I have struck the Amazon off my list after this book. Percy Fawcett and his group were obsessed with finding the Lost City of Z, a place of wealth and knowledge and strange goings on. He got lost. Then lots of people tried to find him, and they got lost. And now this author of this book is going to try to find them and he is pretty obsessed himself.

Than Tibbetts

Grann weaves the fascinating tale of Percy Fawcett — a man of seemingly superhuman determination and unrelenting obsession — with his own, the tale of writer who finds himself lost in his work.

Fawcett’s myriad exploits in the Brazilian Amazon are truly fantastic, and I mean that in the root sense of the word. And while Grann’s telling is rich and wonderfully fun to read 1 , he juxtaposes Fawcett’s adventures with his own. Unfortunately, attempting to draw on his own obsession with Fawcett’s obsession with the Amazon slowed the book down for me.

Despite the book being only half about Fawcett, Grann’s musings on obsession are interesting, and round out what was a highly engaging portrait of a one-of-a-kind man.

See the precursor to the book, his 2005 New Yorker article by the same name.

Jeremy Anderberg

I was first introduced to David Grann when Killers of the Flower Moon came out a couple years ago. I was immediately hooked, and The Lost City of Z had since been on my radar. I finally picked it up, and it deserves a firm spot near the top of any list of non-fiction adventure/exploration books.

It follows a couple storylines. The primary is the exploration of the Amazon in the early 1900s by Percy Fawcett. While his first goal was purely scientific, Fawcett was soon entranced by the idea of finding the lost city of "Z" — an El Dorado-esque civilization that left behind hoards of gold and treasure.

He had only marginal proof of its existence, and yet spent decades searching for it in what I came to believe is probably the harshest, most difficult environment on earth: the Amazonian Rainforest.

With its abundance of moisture and fauna and flora, you'd think it would actually be easy to stay alive. But in reality, those things work against human exploration. Once something gets wet it stays wet, biting/burrowing insects run rampant (inside the body in many cases — gives me the heebie-jeebies thinking about it again), and most food/water contains some form of poison or disease or invisible parasite. And I haven't yet mentioned the numerous tribes of natives who distrusted white explorers. Ultimately, Fawcett and his son disappeared in 1925, at the height of their fame.

So Grann, in the secondary storyline, sets out to find him. The problem is that hundreds of others have done just that, and no trace of Fawcett or Z has ever been found. Grann actually estimated that up to 100 others have died looking for famed explorer and his lost city.

It's a gripping, page-turning story that's history, mystery, and modern adventure all wrapped into one tightly-written narrative.

I'll leave you to read the book to find out what Grann ultimately found. If this is a genre you're into, The Lost City of Z is a must-add to your reading list.

Elizabeth Raines

Another average read. This book started out strong but after the first quarter it just felt like it was all over the place. The author was not following one set path. I think the aspect of an ancient city being in the middle of the Amazon is very interesting and I did learn from this book but I felt like it could have been executed better. I will be going down rabbit holes reading about some of the subjects in this work of nonfiction. However, I do not think that I will be watching the movie adaptation of 'The Lost City of Z'.

Jeni Enjaian

I found this book intriguing. Grann did an excellent job weaving together the mystery of this city, the myths surrounding it and the myths surrounding the searches for it. The ultimate ending of the book, with the knowledge that the wife never found out what actually happened to her husband and son, feels sad and almost hopeless. At the end, I do not understand how Grann became obsessed with the search and even more why his wife would willingly let him go undertake this search, especially with a one year old at home.

Dani C

It was okay. Not my cup of tea. Read for book club and while there is some very fascinating info in here I wouldn't have finished it or picked it up myself had my book club not been a factor.

The Lost City of Z A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon

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