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

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

by David Grann

3.80 · rating details · 10,386 ratings · 2,103 reviews

A grand mystery reaching back centuries. A sensational disappearance that made headlines around the world. A quest for truth that leads to death, madness or disappearance for those who seek to solve it. The Lost City of Z is a blockbuster adventure narrative about what lies beneath the impenetrable jungle canopy of the Amazon.

After stumbling upon a hidden trove...moreA grand mystery reaching back centuries. A sensational disappearance that made headlines around the world. A quest for truth that leads to death, madness or disappearance for those who seek to solve it. The Lost City of Z is a blockbuster adventure narrative about what lies beneath the impenetrable jungle canopy of the Amazon.

After stumbling upon a hidden trove of diaries, acclaimed New Yorker writer David Grann set out to solve "the greatest exploration mystery of the twentieth century": What happened to the British explorer Percy Fawcett and his quest for the Lost City of Z?

In 1925 Fawcett ventured into the Amazon to find an ancient civilization, hoping to make one of the most important discoveries in history. For centuries Europeans believed the world's largest jungle concealed the glittering kingdom of El Dorado. Thousands had died looking for it, leaving many scientists convinced that the Amazon was truly inimical to humankind. But Fawcett, whose daring expeditions inspired Conan Doyle's The Lost World, had spent years building his scientific case. Captivating the imagination of millions around the globe, Fawcett embarked with his twenty-one-year-old son, determined to prove that this ancient civilisation; which he dubbed “Z”—existed. Then he and his expedition vanished.

Fawcett's fate, and the tantalizing clues he left behind about “Z”—became an obsession for hundreds who followed him into the uncharted wilderness. For decades scientists and adventurers have searched for evidence of Fawcett's party and the lost City of Z. Countless have perished, been captured by tribes, or gone mad. As David Grann delved ever deeper into the mystery surrounding Fawcett's quest, and the greater mystery of what lies within the Amazon, he found himself, like the generations who preceded him, being irresistibly drawn into the jungle's green hell. His quest for the truth and stunning discoveries about Fawcett's fate and “Z” form the heart of this complex, enthralling narrative.(less)

Hardcover, 339 pages

Published February 24th 2009 by Doubleday (NY) (first published January 1st 2009)

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Mar 17, 2010

Kemper rated it

Shelves: non-fiction

We’ve all been wrong on this whole rainforest issue. We don’t need to SAVE the rainforest. We need to DESTROY the rainforest. Immediately.

I knew that the Amazon was a hostile environment, but I was really shocked at the variety of horrific ways that the jungle will kill a person. You’ve got your standard malaria and yellow fever. Then there’s the piranha, the electric eels, the anacondas, the coral snakes or the poisonous toads that are so toxic that one of them could kill a h...moreWe’ve all been wrong on this whole rainforest issue. We don’t need to SAVE the rainforest. We need to DESTROY the rainforest. Immediately.

I knew that the Amazon was a hostile environment, but I was really shocked at the variety of horrific ways that the jungle will kill a person. You’ve got your standard malaria and yellow fever. Then there’s the piranha, the electric eels, the anacondas, the coral snakes or the poisonous toads that are so toxic that one of them could kill a hundred people. Still not convinced? How about the tiny fish that will swim into any orifice and proceed to do things so terrible that sometimes men had to be castrated to survive.

That’s not even talking about the bugs. Sure, the mosquitoes spread disease, but there’s also a variety of maggot that will infect living tissue. Ants that can eat your clothes in a single night. Chiggers that eat human tissue. Cyanide squirting millipedes. Parasitic worms that cause blindness. Bugs that plant larvae under the skin where it will hatch later. ‘Kissing bugs’ that bite the lips but the victim doesn’t die until 20 years later when their brain or heart swells.

Even if that doesn’t kill you, you’d probably starve to death in what is described as a counterfeit paradise. Because even though there’s all kinds of plants and animals, good luck finding anything edible. Avoid the animals, the disease, the bugs, injury, and starving to death, and you’re still screwed when hostile natives catch you, eat you and use your skull as their favorite coffee mug.

To hell with the Amazon. Burn or bulldoze all of it and sow the earth with salt. That treacherous hellhole has to be obliterated before it can spread. And I don’t want to hear about global warming or any nonsense about generating most of the world’s oxygen. We can breathe shallow, people!

Old Percy Fawcett was a veteran explorer who mounted several expeditions into the Amazon and somehow managed to escape with his life. But he got obsessed with finding the mythical ruins of an El Dorado-type city and led his son and another poor bastard to some kind of gruesome deaths. The mystery of what happened to him led to countless deaths from other dumb asses trekking into the jungle to look for them.

The guy who wrote the book knew all this and he was still stupid enough to go in there. He somehow lived through it, but I think the message is clear. Stay out!(less)

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Nov 30, 2010

Ryan rated it

The most dangerous moment in my highly amateurish hiking career was when I fell a little behind my friends and then fell off a mountain path. Fortunately, I was holding a rope and did not roll down the cliff into the rocks below. Unfortunately, my friends couldn't hear me screaming for help. I held on tight, calmed myself, and climbed back on to the path.

It scared the living daylights out of my mom when I told her, even though I was clearly still alive as I told the story.

...moreThe most dangerous moment in my highly amateurish hiking career was when I fell a little behind my friends and then fell off a mountain path. Fortunately, I was holding a rope and did not roll down the cliff into the rocks below. Unfortunately, my friends couldn't hear me screaming for help. I held on tight, calmed myself, and climbed back on to the path.

It scared the living daylights out of my mom when I told her, even though I was clearly still alive as I told the story.

So you can bet that my mom would not have wanted to know Percy Harrison Fawcett, an English explorer tasked with exploring the Amazon rain forest at the start of the 20th century. Not easy. Any creature not poisonous is probably trying to reproduce in your skin. Fawcett referred to the jungle as hell, but he couldn't stop himself from exploring it repeatedly, relentlessly, and obsessively. By the 1920s, Fawcett became convinced that a lost city had been buried within the forest. He set out in 1921 and again in 1925 to find it, only to disappear in the attempt.

What a story!

Which is exactly why David Grann sets out to tell Fawcett's tale of obsession in The Lost City of Z.

To his credit, Grann has a great eye for details, describing the horrors of the jungle, the arrogance with which the Royal Geographical Society viewed the Amazonian Indians, and the preparations needed to plan an expedition. I also enjoyed his discussion of spiritualism in an age that ostensibly celebrated reason and science. Grann's favorite example, and mine, was Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who was enthusiastic about exploration, invented Sherlock Holmes, and believed wholehearted in psychic mediums. More than anything else, Grann has a great sense of pacing and of narrative. In fact, The Lost City of Z may be the most exciting work of non-fiction that I have ever read.

However, perhaps Grann's dedication to the story gets the best of him.

For one thing, Grann enters the jungle, which he passes off as obsession (nicely done), but by the end of the book I found myself wondering if it wasn't just a marketing gimmick. This is perhaps unfair, so please let me explain.

Ostensibly, Grann enters the jungle to trace Fawcett's route and to find his remains, if possible (about 80 years later). He has also made contact with Michael Heckenberger, an anthropologist studying the Amazon. Grann implies that their meeting is a surprise. And he further confesses his shock that *surprise* there is evidence of a lost civilization after all. Quite frankly, it seems unlikely to me that Grann wouldn't have known of Heckenberger's findings before heading into the jungle. Surely amongst all this obsession he looked up Heckenberger's work before heading to Brazil.

But it does make for a good story to suddenly discover, just as Grann is about to return to New York, that there is evidence of an ancient civilization after all.

So although I am suspicious of Grann the reporter, I certainly recommend Grann the story teller.(less)

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Feb 05, 2011

Trish rated it

Shelves: adventure, mysteries, nonfiction, south-america

What a great read. For really the first time I understood the fascination with the phrase 'armchair traveller.' In other circumstances, I always thought it was somewhat absurd to think that reading about a thing was as fun as doing it. In this case, it was a lot more fun to read about it than to do it. Pit vipers, swarms of biting insects, interminable wet, death by maggots...and in all of it, a frustrating mystery. At its heart, this is a story of the search for a magnificent civilization in th...more

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Jan 15, 2012

Will rated it

Shelves: biography-autobiography-memoir, non-fiction, adventuring

UPDATE - 1/15/2012 - link at bottom

Be careful when you pick this book up. You won’t want to put it down. In 1925, Percy Harrison Fawcett, armed with information only he had unearthed, accompanied by his son, his son’s best friend and a small company of bearers and support personnel, headed off into the Amazonian wilderness in search of a large, ancient, fabled city, the City of Z. Fawcett, his son, Jack, and Jack’s friend, Raleigh, were never seen again. There were many attempts by ...moreUPDATE - 1/15/2012 - link at bottom

Be careful when you pick this book up. You won’t want to put it down. In 1925, Percy Harrison Fawcett, armed with information only he had unearthed, accompanied by his son, his son’s best friend and a small company of bearers and support personnel, headed off into the Amazonian wilderness in search of a large, ancient, fabled city, the City of Z. Fawcett, his son, Jack, and Jack’s friend, Raleigh, were never seen again. There were many attempts by later explorers of varying levels of expertise to find Fawcett, or at least to learn definitively of his fate. Professional writer David Grann joins that horde, armed with little or no experience as an outdoorsman and having his athletic prowess honed by years as a subway-riding resident of Brooklyn. Not, perhaps, the likeliest starting point. He sets out on a strenuous enterprise in an attempt to explain this 80 year old mystery.

While Grann’s book is non-fiction, it reads like an H. Rider Haggard action adventure novel. You will feel palpable excitement as Grann digs up first one then another then another clue as to where Fawcett might have wound up. He follows research directions ignored or unsuspected by prior investigators, to great advantage. I won’t spoil the ending by telling what he does or does not find. That is almost beside the point.

It is the journey that counts here, and part of that journey is the window Grann offers on a part of the history of exploration, the sort of people who were drawn to it, their reasons, their personalities, the effect of their quests (or obsessions, depending) on their careers, families and on the body of human knowledge. We learn also of competing theories about the potential for the Amazon to support a large, urban population. Grann shows, as well, the challenges, the horrors of trying to traverse one of the most unwelcoming areas on earth. This is a very entertaining, very informative and very engaging journey.

UPDATES
Once Hidden by Forest, Carvings in Land Attest to Amazon’s Lost World
New York Times: January 14, 2012
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Nov 25, 2008

Nancy rated it

Shelves: favorite

I picked up this book and was immediately lost between the covers and could not stop reading until I had finished the entire thing. That's how good this book is.

The author sets forth the story of Colonel Percy Harrison Fawcett, a British explorer who in 1925 set out on an expedition to the Amazon to find what he had named the "lost city of Z." He was convinced that an ancient and "highly cultured" people lived in the Amazon of Brazil, untouched by modern civiliza...moreI picked up this book and was immediately lost between the covers and could not stop reading until I had finished the entire thing. That's how good this book is.

The author sets forth the story of Colonel Percy Harrison Fawcett, a British explorer who in 1925 set out on an expedition to the Amazon to find what he had named the "lost city of Z." He was convinced that an ancient and "highly cultured" people lived in the Amazon of Brazil, untouched by modern civilization, and that they lived in a great city in a valley somewhere. He spent years doing research and gathering evidence for the existence of this place in order to get funding for expeditions into Brazil's interior. On the 1925 expedition, he took his son, Jack, and Jack's best friend, both eager to be part of a mission that would make history. But shortly after they had arrived into the Amazon area, all communications ceased, and while their movements were traced to a point, nothing concrete was ever heard regarding the three explorers. Their disappearance, and the publicity following the mission from which they never returned, prompted years worth of explorers trying to locate any trace of Fawcett, his son, and his son's friend, even as late as 1996. Too bad for those left behind, Fawcett, who was facing a lot of competition from others exploring the Amazon at the time, and worried that these other explorers might find the lost city of Z before he would, kept his route a very closely guarded secret, so it was pretty much impossible for anyone to go in to either locate bodies, effect a rescue or even trace with any accuracy the steps taken by Fawcett and his group. Although Fawcett's wife refused to believe that her husband and son were gone, they had pretty much just vanished off the face of the earth. Grann, who writes for the New Yorker, decided to try to find Fawcett's route and discover what had happened to him once and for all. This book not only traces Grann's efforts, but takes the reader back into the Victorian period, at the peak of the British Empire, to look at exactly who Percy Fawcett was. It also examines old and modern views of the indigenous peoples of the Amazon as well as offers a glimpse of the fate of the rain forest in modern times.

Simply stunning and superb, I loved this book so much that I pre-ordered a copy for when it is released for the general reading public. The writing is excellent, the mystery surrounding Fawcett's disappearance is well portrayed, and the amount of effort that Grann went to in his research is very much apparent here. If you are looking for something entirely different that will mesmerize you instantly, you cannot miss this book. I had never heard about any of this up until now, & my curiosity has been sparked enough that I made notes and took down book titles to fill in some holes in my knowledge.

I cannot recommend this book highly enough, and I would like to thank Doubleday for sending me this book and also those on Shelf Awareness for offering it as an ARC. It is an excellent piece of writing. (less)

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Dec 08, 2011

Jeremy added it

This is kind of an odd accomplishment: an adventure book that will make you really really glad your not an adventurer. Grann's descriptions of Fawcett et al trampling through the amazonian rainforest with their crass, (often racist) imperialist delusions of grandeur and discovery are often gut-wrenching. Skin peels off in sheets, everyone gets malaria, parasites, maggot infections (shudder), gangrene, etc. Trekking through unspoiled tropical jungles is utterly horrifying, you basically just turn...more

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Feb 24, 2009

Sara rated it

The Lost City of Z by David Grann is exceptional book that I can altogether recommend to every variety of reader. This well-rendered and deeply researched biography of Percy Fawcett, centers on his all consuming obsession with the Lost City of Z (evidence of a great but forgotten jungle civilization), the international fever that follows his mysterious disappearance and some of the more exciting tidbits of Grann’s journey to piece together Fawcett’s tale.

The book is unrelenting in...more

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Apr 12, 2009

Patrick Gibson rated it

Recommends it for: people with an interest in archaeology and adventure

Recommended to Patrick by: thank you Steven Colbert

Shelves: history, testosterone, truth_sort-of, biography

This author was on the Colbert show a few nights ago. Even though Steven wouldn’t give the poor guy a chance to talk, the story seemed right up my alley so I picked up the book the next day. Isn’t that why authors appear on talk shows, so that numb-nuts like me will rush to Borders?

Percy Harrison Fawcett was the real-life explorer whose adventures Arthur Conan Doyle drew upon for his 1912 novel ‘The Lost Word.’ While Fawcett did not find a South American plateau populated with dinosa...moreThis author was on the Colbert show a few nights ago. Even though Steven wouldn’t give the poor guy a chance to talk, the story seemed right up my alley so I picked up the book the next day. Isn’t that why authors appear on talk shows, so that numb-nuts like me will rush to Borders?

Percy Harrison Fawcett was the real-life explorer whose adventures Arthur Conan Doyle drew upon for his 1912 novel ‘The Lost Word.’ While Fawcett did not find a South American plateau populated with dinosaurs, he did lead numerous expeditions looking for lost civilizations. On his last and most ambitious—seeking the City of Z—he vanished. Over the past seventy-five years there have been hundreds of other expeditions into the Amazon, by a myriad of adventurers, looking for Percy Fawcett. All failed. Hundreds died. Many were never heard from again.

Fawcett marked the end of an age. He was the last of the individualist explores. The day of the airplane, the radio, the organized and heavily financed modern expedition had not arrived. With him, it was the heroic story of a man against a vast uncharted wilderness nearly the size of the continental United States inhabited by deadly warriors.
Armed with newly discovered information found in a trunk by one of
Fawcett’s grandchildren the author, after completing exhaustive research, decides to enter the Amazon and follow the path of Fawcett’s last journey. This is a little eye-brow lifting because the author is a middle aged slightly chunky New Yorker who is the complete opposite of the rigorously trained, physically fit, handsome Fawcett. Thus the consequence of obsession, I guess.

Throughout the nineteenth century there was a tremendous speculation concerning the ‘lesser’ civilizations and their inability to reach a level of sophistication beyond living in huts and foraging for food. Darwin did nothing to dispel this attitude—in fact, augmented it. Fawcett was unique in his vision and belief that remote jungle societies could indeed build out of stone, decipher the movements of the stars and create a written language. Without any concrete knowledge of its existence, he was determined to find proof, in the form of a magnificent stone city—he called Z—in the blank parts of the Amazon maps.

For Fawcett’s final, and according to him ‘definitive’ 1925 excursion, instead of a group of hunter/explorers, he took only his twenty-one year old son Jack, and Jack’s companion Raleigh Rimell (who really wanted to go to Hollywood and become a silent movie star). For a while the trio sent native runners out of the jungle with progress reports. Their messages would be telegraphed to cities in the United States and eventually newspapers around the world published accounts of their progress. The world literally followed their escapades like a serial novel. Then everything stopped. And the world went nuts. Every major geographical society mounted rescue parties. Finding Fawcett Fever lasted for years. Even in the 1950’s there were rumors Fawcett was still alive and lording like a king over a remote tribe. In the 1960’s, rescue parties were mounted and sent into the wilds. More people died searching for Fawcett than looking for the headwaters of the Nile or panning gold in the Pacific northwest.

It’s a pretty amazing story and a whopping good read. The author knows how to pace his story and exactly the right time to intersperse details of his own trek though the tropical forest.

I have always wondered about these curious lines from ‘Othello”:

And of the Cannibals that each other eat,
The Anthropophagi, and men whose heads
Do grow beneath their shoulders.

It comes from an idea Shakespeare borrowed from Sir Walter Raleigh writing about Francisco de Orellana, whose expedition into the Amazon vanished in 1542. One of the many Christian xenophobes who contributed to slavery in the Western hemisphere. (Raleigh, not Shakespeare.)
The author doesn’t have an ending and the story looses its momentum towards the end, but it is an intriguing story, well researched and a very interesting read. Completely enjoyable.
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Apr 21, 2011

Denise rated it

· review of another edition

Incredible reviews, national best seller, interesting subject matter, well written, extensively researched and yet it did nothing for me. EPIC FAIL. Not sure why but I had a hard time getting through it without falling asleep every other page. Too many details, too many names, too many stories, too much repetition (I get it, the AMAZON is incredibly dangerous). The first half just dragged and dragged. I am glad that I made myself finish it otherwise I would have nothing positive to say. I will a...more

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Mar 23, 2011

Amanda rated it

· review of another edition

Recommended to Amanda by: Jason Gignac

Shelves: nonfiction, world-lit, 2011

(4.5 stars)

Before I begin this review, I have to admit something a little embarrassing. For a very long time, I thought this book was a zombie novel. I mean, “The Lost City of Z” just sounds like a zombie novel, right? I think I was getting it mixed up with all those World War Z sorts of books. Then, a couple months ago, Jason mentioned it to me as a nonfiction book about South America and the Amazon. I was floored. I had no idea! It sounded fascinating, so I got the audiobook from the...more(4.5 stars)

Before I begin this review, I have to admit something a little embarrassing. For a very long time, I thought this book was a zombie novel. I mean, “The Lost City of Z” just sounds like a zombie novel, right? I think I was getting it mixed up with all those World War Z sorts of books. Then, a couple months ago, Jason mentioned it to me as a nonfiction book about South America and the Amazon. I was floored. I had no idea! It sounded fascinating, so I got the audiobook from the library and decided to listen to it.

The book is sort of a mixed biography, history lesson, and travelogue all in one. The primary focus is on an explorer from the late 19th/early 20th century, a man named Percy Fawcett. Fawcett was apparently pretty famous in his time and his explorations were the inspiration for a whole host of things, including books by many writers of the time (such as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Lost World). I, being really ignorant when it comes to history, had never heard of the guy and had a great time getting to know all about him and Amazon exploration.

David Grann sets this book up perfectly, alternating history lessons, biographical information on Fawcett and other explorers, and information from his own journey into the Amazon. He tells us how he did all his research, and instead of just presenting the research, he tells it as if it’s a story. To me, this is the best kind of history, and the kind I retain most easily. It’s focused on cultural and human aspects, rather than political or governmental. That’s not to say that politics and government played no part in the history or the book. They did. But they were integrated into the story of these people, rather than the reverse.

I learned so much from this book that I didn’t know before. South America fascinates me, though I’m not sure I would personally want to go into the Amazon, especially after hearing all the (really gross) tales of insects and parasites. Still, from a distance, all this fascinates me. I really felt immersed in the area and a time period in a way I rarely feel. I think it helped that I listened to the audio version, rather than just reading. Hearing it spoken added a whole new dimension for me, and I think I’ve decided that, whenever possible, I want to listen to my nonfiction in the future. Mark Deakins read the audiobook, and he was the perfect narrator, clear and precise. I highly recommend both the book and the audio production.(less)

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Apr 02, 2010

Chris rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: history, latin-south-america, fairy-tale-criticism, british-history

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Shortly after I finished this book, the BBC World Service reported that a Brazilian man who advocated for small farmers, natives, and the rain forest was murdered. He was shot five times in the head while biking with his wife. The same report made reference to the 2005 killing of an American nun, a murder that Grann mentions in his book. What the news report drove home was the idea that the Amazon is still a dangerous place, just not exactly in the same way it was during Fawcett’s time. Ins...more Shortly after I finished this book, the BBC World Service reported that a Brazilian man who advocated for small farmers, natives, and the rain forest was murdered. He was shot five times in the head while biking with his wife. The same report made reference to the 2005 killing of an American nun, a murder that Grann mentions in his book. What the news report drove home was the idea that the Amazon is still a dangerous place, just not exactly in the same way it was during Fawcett’s time. Instead of worrying about how a misunderstanding with a native tribe could end in the death of tribal members or of the group of explorers, the battle is now between business and various types of conversation. In many ways, a more violent battle, not just because everyone has guns.

This idea is not wholly examined in The Lost City of Z, though David Grann does touch on it in the closing chapters of his book, and the idea of the destruction of the natural world does run though a good portion of the book.

Much of the book is about Fawcett and his various trips to the Amazon; culminating in what was undoubtedly a fatal trip to find a “lost” city that he had named Z.

In fact, if you are going to learn anything from this book (and you are), the most important is the simple fact that if the natives tell you not to do something or go somewhere, LISTEN TO THEM! THEY KNOW FROM WHENCE THEY SPEAK!

(I’m using the slightly political incorrect term of natives because I am a good American who has been taught that Indian refers to a person from India. South American Native Americans is way too wordy, there too many tribes to list all the tribe names, and the term Native American or First People [nations:] would make me sound like the news anchor on CNN who referred to the African immigrants protesting/rioting in Paris a few years back as African-Americans.)

Fawcett was a man who spent more time in the Amazon then with his family. As an aside, Grann does a wonderful job of showing the strength of character of both Nina Fawcett and Grann’s own wife, making both women sound just as, if not more, heroic than their husbands. In fact, Mr. Grann, your wife sounds far more intelligent than you. (Sorry, don’t mean to offend, but she knew you needed more than sneakers before heading into the Amazon). The men who explored the Amazon seemed to have married very understand and supportive women (and, if possible, very rich women). While her husband was dealing with nasty bugs and a fish that could swim up his wee-wee, Nina Fawcett was giving birth to their second child, raising their first (eventually raising all three children), keeping house, and protecting her husband’s reputation, all of this on a rather limited budget.

To be far, Fawcett seemed to know that he was unworthy of her. This is what makes the book charming. It’s warts and all, and the people who have warts, know they have them. It’s very human.

Fawcett became convinced that there was lost civilization in the Amazon, basically a version of the city of gold myth. It was during an attempt to find this city that Fawcett, his eldest son Jack, and his son’s closest friend disappeared in the Amazon. The disappearance set off searches, rescue missions, and theories (such as this book), possibly resulting in another 100 deaths/disappearances.

Grann seems aware of his obsession and the risks it brings to both himself and his family. In fact, it seems like this is going to be his only big adventure. It seems he learned a lesson that Fawcett didn’t or couldn’t learn.

In some ways, the most interesting part of the book is the closing chapter which describes what a lost civilization in the Amazon is truly. Think the Incas, the Mayans, the Aztecs but in a different country. If the rain forest is turned wholly over to big business, if its defenders and supporters are murdered then not only do the flora and fauna of the Amazon disappear, not only do tribal cultures (if not whole tribes) die, but the Lost City of Z will still forever be lost.
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Feb 11, 2011

Jayme rated it

Recommended to Jayme by: Alex

Shelves: 2011, biography, history, travel

Mostly this follows the life of Percy Fawcett, an Amazon explorer who went missing on his last trip into the jungle with his son and friend, in search of the lost city of Z, or El Dorado. While I thought this book was super fascinating it had the same flaw in it that I have disliked in about every travelogue I've ever read. The travelogue part of it had no point. There was no good reason for Grann himself to go to the Amazon. He had no real objective and didn't bring anything new to light. He co...moreMostly this follows the life of Percy Fawcett, an Amazon explorer who went missing on his last trip into the jungle with his son and friend, in search of the lost city of Z, or El Dorado. While I thought this book was super fascinating it had the same flaw in it that I have disliked in about every travelogue I've ever read. The travelogue part of it had no point. There was no good reason for Grann himself to go to the Amazon. He had no real objective and didn't bring anything new to light. He could just as easily have written this as a straight biography of Percy Fawcett and left out his lame attempt to follow him into the jungle. If he felt he needed to see it for himself, fine, but don't bother writing about it, and worse don't dramatize your little walk into the village where for 5 seconds you didn't know where your guide was so that we'll think you suffered horrendously on your trip.

Don't get me wrong though, I still really loved the book. I just have issues with travelogues in general I think. There's something very egotistical about them. Aside from that, Fawcett was such an entertaining person to read about. His slow descent into obsession, and I would say madness, is like something out of a movie. And ended up as several different movies and books! Including a Tintin story apparently. I'm going to have to hunt that one down myself.

One really interesting thing from the book was how many native tribes there are in the forests that have never made contact with the outside world. I wouldn't have thought that were really possible today.

And to give Grann some credit, this is the best written of this type of book that I've read to date!

Bookish Notes:
Read this as part the Out of Your Control Task for the Winter 11 Challenge. It was picked for me by the awesome Alex. Nice pick, Alex!

Also used this for the 42 days of Collective Behaviour topic. It fit by accident but, after starting the book I realised the frenzy of Amazon wanna-be explorers that popped up after Fawcette's disappearance in the hopes of being the one to find him, was very much a form of collective behaviour.(less)

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Jul 26, 2009

Nick rated it

Shelves: biography, book-club

This is a great adventure story of an early 20th century Amazon explorer who mysteriously disappeared on one of his many sojouurns into the heart of Amazonia. Acutally, the area Percy Fawcett explored was south of the Amazon proper; mostly he explored in western Brazil near the Bolivian border, though he disappeared on a trek eastward from there. Lots of interesting sidelines are here, including his brother's, his wife's and his own interest in spiritualism, of the Madame Blavatsky sort. Also ...more

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Apr 12, 2009

Ryan rated it

Shelves: exploration

Real life Indiana Jones. The framing of England at the end of empire and the incredibly bold mission of the Royal Geographic Society adds some heft.

There's a moment where the protagonist, Percy Fawcett, discloses his distaste for mountaineers and arctic explorers, wondering why they are capturing all the glory for trekking barren wasteland while he and the other jungle explorers, particularly in South America, are more neglected. It's an interesting question. Is delving into somethi...more

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Mar 21, 2009

Sarah rated it

Although this book won't win awards for superlative prose or incredible research, by god what a rollicking read.

Grann's recounting, and investigation, into the disappearance of Percy Harrison Fawcett and his son and friend while searching for the fabled lost city of Z in the Amazon jungle is both a detective story, an archaeological adventure, and a cautionary tale about greed and obsession. Easy to read and there is some closure, as although the true fate of Fawcett is perhaps tant...more

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Mar 27, 2009

Eric rated it

Shelves: science, history, recent-reads

this is a fun read. the book straddles quite nicely that line between bookish and entertaining. the narrative is a little lop-sided. i think grann's own adventure pales in comparison, in terms of drama, but of course it's crucial to getting you the answers you are looking for -- namely, does z exist? and what happened to percy fawcett?

i think i most enjoyed the descriptions of the difficult nature of amazonian exploration. the bugs, the maggots, the disease, harsh nature of the...more

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Jun 23, 2010

Ken rated it

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I started reading David Grann’s The Lost City of Z a few weeks ago and half way through it I realized what attracted me to it. It takes me back to another book of my youth. The Lost World by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was a book that I loved as a kid. Probably, I read the Classics Illustrated Comic version before I actually read the book (as was the case with many books from Treasure Island to Hamlet).

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is much better known as the creator of Sherlock Holmes. Even if...more

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Jun 13, 2011

Nate rated it

The Lost City of Z is really the biography of turn of the century Englishman Col. P.H. Fawcett. Fawcett is a most interesting subject; he was a gentleman explorer - one of the last of an autodidactic, romantic, heroic breed that existed before the field became scientific and specialized. He surveyed with precision using only a sextant and the stars. In the beginning, he made several important geographical contributions in South America, including defining national boundaries and discovering r...more

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Apr 18, 2009

Mandy Hutchison rated it

This is a great book that I highly recommend. I found it to be extremely interesting. I thought the author did a very good job of jumping between the past and the present to tell us the tale of Fawcett and his own personal journey into the Amazon. The novel is full of interesting details about Percy's life and his expeditions. I can't believe anyone survived going into the Amazon and would keep going back. The illnesses you could catch so easily were horrible! I also liked hearing about the auth...more

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Feb 03, 2009

Ab rated it

Shelves: learn-me-real-good, crazyness-mind-blowing-whoa

This book is relentlessly fascinating, full of mind-blowing facts and information that never cease to amaze, and tells an incredible story about the history of Amazon exploration.

I'm not a big fan of non-fiction because I tend to get bored with dry facts, but this book grabbed me from the beginning, and I even pushed myself past the sleepy nodding-off point of several nights to read "just one more page". I read this book in only a week, and I'm still reeling.

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Jan 07, 2012

Melissa Railey rated it

I must confess, I have a romantic attachment to the idea of exploration. The adventurer in me can't help but think about how wonderful it would be to live in a time where you could set out to explore unknown worlds. I sometimes find myself looking at a beautiful spot whether it be a waterfall, a mountain range or a river and imagining what it would have been like to stumble across this piece of God's mastery and know that no human had seen it before. That's what drew me to this book. It's about...more

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Aug 09, 2011

Aaron Carpenter added it

This is an adventurous non-fiction book centered around Percy Fawcett's near-death excursions into the Amazon close to a hundred years ago. His final goal was to find the lost city of "Z," and then he disappeared...

Fawcett's life was an interesting one, much of which is included in this book. When the author stumbled upon the stories of Fawcett, he became so intrigued that he decided to adventure into the Amazon to find out what happened.

This book sucks you in from the get-go and doe...more

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Jul 22, 2010

Benjamin rated it

Shelves: nonfiction, 2009-read, history, exploration, south, jungles, amazon, archaeology, occultism

This book was a good mix of many different topics and in many different settings. The author, David Grann, did a fairly good job of writing, in a creative method, a history of the endeavors to explore the deepest sections of the Amazon jungle. Although mainly doing this through the life of P.H. Fawcett, the transition back and forth between Fawcett's various journeys, the journey of the author, and the journeys of various other explorers, was refreshing and kept my interest up. [return][return]T...moreThis book was a good mix of many different topics and in many different settings. The author, David Grann, did a fairly good job of writing, in a creative method, a history of the endeavors to explore the deepest sections of the Amazon jungle. Although mainly doing this through the life of P.H. Fawcett, the transition back and forth between Fawcett's various journeys, the journey of the author, and the journeys of various other explorers, was refreshing and kept my interest up. [return][return]There were some key themes that I found interesting. One of them being the juxtaposition demonstrated between Amazon travel now and Amazon travel 100 years ago. Planes, satellites, phones, medicine, all make it a bit easier to explore that world now. It helped me appreciate the endurance that men like Fawcett must have possessed. It was also interesting to see how having a small band of people compared to having an expedition army. Dr. Rice s adventurers into the jungle seemed to hint at a clich� that I caught in other books and films. The eccentric lone genius with little funding faces the odds by himself, while the pampered and rich socialite avoids danger but wants the fame. Reminds me a little of the movie Twister, with Helen Hunt. [return][return]Another theme: Fawcett 's method as a scientist/explorer vs. modern anthropology. Compared to what we know now, his way of going about exploring and interacting with native populations isn't too far off from the standards of today. Fawcett's training as a scientist is not so good in my view, but again, my view is 100 years from his time. His buy-in to such obvious fakery such as s�ances and spiritualists makes me wonder just how skeptical he was of some of the "natural" knowledge he learned from the indigenous peoples of the Amazon. From Grann's research into Fawcett's personal diaries it is easy to see that he got caught up in the bizarre and mystical Atlantean hoopla. He even started trying to convince himself of the Lost City of Z by getting guidance and information from channelers he sought out in England. No wonder he had so much trouble getting funding for his later expeditions. I can imagine what National Geographic would say today to someone requesting funds for an expedition, once they discovered that the guy was visiting psychics for reconnaissance. I found the Fawcett cult that rose up in the early 80's to be a continuation of the new age baloney, but also very funny.[return][return]I liked how the book ended with a focus on current anthropological research in the Amazon. I just wish it could have been a bit longer than 5 pages or so. I knew at the beginning of the book that the author wasn't going to find "El Dorado" but I would have liked a little bit more. Maybe some pictures of the current finds. [return][return]Overall, a good read, not too deep historically speaking, but enough to keep my interest. This book made me want to read more about current archaeological research going on in that area of the Amazon.(less)

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Apr 03, 2009

Sara rated it

Shelves: book-club

Explorer Percy Fawcett's early-1900s contributions to the mapping of South America were death-defying and crucial. His fascination with the possible existence of a lost city of riches deep in the jungle drove him to obsessive exploration of the Amazon. After his disappearance in the 1920s, mumerous family members and other adventurers over the next 80 years went in search of the truth of his fate. Reporter David Grann's interest in Fawcett's story and his belief that the explorer might have been...more

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Apr 01, 2009

Matt rated it

Wow. We begin in 1925 with Colonel Percy Harrison Fawcett's descent into the Amazon, Mato Grosso region, with his 21-year-old son, Jack, and Jack's friend, Rawley. They were trekking in search of what Fawcett termed "The Lost City of Z." Z, it turns out, is another name for the chimeric city of El Dorado. And it's not ruining anything to say that by the book's end, the author, with a verbal flourish or two, presents that city to the reader. This book is nothing short of jaw-dropping. T...moreWow. We begin in 1925 with Colonel Percy Harrison Fawcett's descent into the Amazon, Mato Grosso region, with his 21-year-old son, Jack, and Jack's friend, Rawley. They were trekking in search of what Fawcett termed "The Lost City of Z." Z, it turns out, is another name for the chimeric city of El Dorado. And it's not ruining anything to say that by the book's end, the author, with a verbal flourish or two, presents that city to the reader. This book is nothing short of jaw-dropping. The revelations about Z would be too fantastic to believe, if David Grann weren't a reporter for The New Yorker, repository of truth and light; but he is. So you can believe.

Also, as a tiny side note, the introduction of Michael Heckenberger, rockstar archeologist (http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/mheckenb/), at /Lost City of Z/'s end, feels a little like encountering David Foster Wallace, if Wallace had chosen archeology as a career instead of writing. I'm still sad about DFW's death, so this was a nice surprise.

Heckenberger's specialty is the Amazon's Upper Xingu region, about which, and please forgive the dense scholar-ese of the quote (which is worth parsing, because what's mentioned here is nothing short of revolutionary):

"The archaeology of pre-Columbian polities in the Amazon River basin forces a reconsideration of early urbanism and long-term change in tropical forest landscapes. We describe settlement and land-use patterns of complex societies on the eve of European contact (after 1492) in the Upper Xingu region of the Brazilian Amazon. These societies were organized in articulated clusters, representing small independent polities, within a regional peer polity. These patterns constitute a "galactic" form of prehistoric urbanism, sharing features with small-scale urban polities in other areas. Understanding long-term change in coupled human-environment systems relating to these societies has implications for conservation and sustainable development, notably to control ecological degradation and maintain regional biodiversity."

What Heckenberger's talking about, and what /Lost City of Z/ reveals, is evidence that complex societies, populated by millions, existed in the Amazon nearly 4500 years ago. Their understanding of astronomy and engineering rivals that of the Egyptians.

Read and enjoy!(less)

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Mar 31, 2009

Stefan rated it

Shelves: biographies-and-autobiographies, history-and-politics

David Grann does an excellent job of writing a book that is an excellent, accurate biography, but also a gripping exploration of the exciting times of Percy Fawcett. Grann's writing style is something special, and there are passages in this book that are beautifully written, giving me the experience of enjoying the sheer narrative style as the author masterfully carries the story of Fawcett, and his own journey, to a masterful conclusion that both affirms Fawcett's own conclusions and also show...more

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Mar 21, 2009

Nathan rated it

Great, fun, easy read. First book read on "Kindle for iPod Touch", and a good one for that format. Lots of quick and page-turning chapters.

Colonel Fawcett seemed like the last of the great Victorian adventurers. Incredible what people endured in order to color in some white space on the map and in the process become immortal. Fawcett seemed to be chasing the ghosts of Speke and Burton and Livingstone as he plowed into the Amazon while his contemporaries explored the poles...more

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Mar 12, 2009

M2 rated it

Well that settles that. I've always wanted to explore, to follow in the footsteps of the greats -- Humboldt, Fremont, Burton, Stanley, Livingstone, et al -- but I am never, EVER going to the Amazon. If explorer Capt. Percy Harrison Fawcett's experiences -- and eventual death -- on the Amazon are any yardstick, the Amazon sucks and sucks wild. Fish that swim up your urethra and have to be sliced out; chiggers that worry your iris like a thousand unwelcome, spiky contact lenses; 50-foot snakes; sw...more

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Jan 13, 2012

Ernie rated it

This is a story about Percy Fawcett, victorian era (okay a little later, but of the same mold) explorer who wanted to find the Lost city of El Dorado. The background story was the recognition that much of the world was unmapped and the Royal Geographic Society and the American Geographic Society supported and organized explorers into Africa, South America and the Artic regions. The men who became explorers were exceptional in many ways. They were single minded. They were largely amateurs. The...more

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Dec 20, 2011

June added it

i think i might have had a better opinion of this if i hadn't just read hildenbrand's 'unbroken'...which is to say, there is an endless array of gross bodily injuries, pus related infections, and rotting food... i realize each book needs to stand on its own merits but let's face it, both are non-fiction, both with heroic men leading the way, both test the limits of readers' endurance...at some point, i began literally, wandering off...

'colonel' fawcett is not a likeable fellow...though...more

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About David Grann

David Grann is a staff writer at The New Yorker magazine. He has written about everything from New York City’s antiquated water tunnels to the hunt for the giant squid to the presidential campaign.
The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon, published by Doubleday, is Grann’s first book and is being developed into a movie by Brad Pitt’s Plan B production company and Paramou...more

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