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The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon
by
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 of diaries, ...more
After stumbling upon a hidden trove of diaries, ...more
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Hardcover, 339 pages
Published
February 24th 2009
by Doubleday/Random House (NY)
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Abby
overall the book is an easy read. however, depending on age the time skips might be confusing.
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Start your review of The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon

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 hundred people. Sti ...more
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. Sti ...more

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 t
...more

”How easily the Amazon can deceive.
It begins as barely a rivulet, this, the mightiest river in the world, mightier than the Nile and the Ganges, mightier than the Mississippi and all the rivers in China. Over eighteen thousand feet high in the Andes, amid snow and clouds, it emerges through a rocky seam--a trickle of crystal water.”
By the time it reaches the ocean, the estuary of the Amazon river at the mouth is 202 miles wide. A trickle becomes one of the mightiest forces on the planet.
It begins as barely a rivulet, this, the mightiest river in the world, mightier than the Nile and the Ganges, mightier than the Mississippi and all the rivers in China. Over eighteen thousand feet high in the Andes, amid snow and clouds, it emerges through a rocky seam--a trickle of crystal water.”
By the time it reaches the ocean, the estuary of the Amazon river at the mouth is 202 miles wide. A trickle becomes one of the mightiest forces on the planet.
...more

A terrific adventure story, full of suspense and intrigue and lots of historical detail to keep the reader interested. I am not really a reader of adventure strories but every now and again one comes along that catches my interest and when a trusted Goodread's friend recommend this I just had to give it a try and see exactly what the Lost City of Z was all about.
In 1925, British explorer Percy Fawcett and his son journey into the Amazon jungle, in search of what for centuries Europeans believe ...more
In 1925, British explorer Percy Fawcett and his son journey into the Amazon jungle, in search of what for centuries Europeans believe ...more

Reading this book helped clarify one of my life goals, which is TO NEVER GET STRANDED IN THE AMAZON JUNGLE.
Seriously, that place would kill me. There's the threat of piranhas, electric eels, venomous snakes, vampire fish, vampire bats, disease-carrying mosquitoes, dangerous spiders, poisonous plants... and about a hundred other scary things. I fear the jungle because I respect it.*
I also respect those who have set out to explore the jungle — many of whom have died or disappeared. Some of those ...more
Seriously, that place would kill me. There's the threat of piranhas, electric eels, venomous snakes, vampire fish, vampire bats, disease-carrying mosquitoes, dangerous spiders, poisonous plants... and about a hundred other scary things. I fear the jungle because I respect it.*
I also respect those who have set out to explore the jungle — many of whom have died or disappeared. Some of those ...more

This will make you feel like a kid again! It will ignite a Jonny Quest kind of desire for adventure, to dive into the jungle in search of lost worlds.
This will also quench most desires to ever take one step closer to a jungle.
"Z" is supposedly a long lost South American city of a once powerful people. Think El Dorado. Did it ever really exist? Finding out was the self-imposed task of an almost legend of a man who lives up to the myth:
Famous British explorer Percy Harrison Fawcett...

A military m ...more
This will also quench most desires to ever take one step closer to a jungle.
"Z" is supposedly a long lost South American city of a once powerful people. Think El Dorado. Did it ever really exist? Finding out was the self-imposed task of an almost legend of a man who lives up to the myth:
Famous British explorer Percy Harrison Fawcett...

A military m ...more

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 civilization, and that they lived in a gr ...more
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 gr ...more

After reading KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON, I was desperate for more nonfiction and, especially, more David Grann. Well, THE LOST CITY OF Z did not disappoint! The joy of Grann's writing isn't just in the sense of action and adventure he offers in his works, but the incredible reportage and detail he puts into each of his books. Fawcett, a man larger than life and one who might seemingly be impossible to capture in the antiquated medium of the written word, comes alive like few other historic char
...more

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

4+ stars - This is the third book I’ve read by David Grann. I enjoy his journalistic and research-oriented writing style. He knows how to weave a yarn and draw the reader in; I was captivated by this story of one man’s obsession with finding the lost city of Z. Colonel Percy Harrison Fawcett is an intrepid explorer who mapped areas of South America previously unknown to Europeans. Only Indian tribes lived there, some very hostile and with good reason. Many had been enslaved by the Spanish conqui
...more

Rating: 4.5* of five
This review has been revised and can now be found at Expendable Mudge Muses Aloud.
Real-life Indiana Jones doesn't come back from this one.
2017 Movie News: Go watch the trailer for this Amazon Studios film. I'll wait. Okay, now go read the Rotten Tomatoes aggregation. Won't take long.
Now. A four-plus star book review from me and a host of other sources, agreement among critics from Den of Geek all the way to The Nation, and a cast of pretty, pretty actors...plus the fact that ...more
This review has been revised and can now be found at Expendable Mudge Muses Aloud.
Real-life Indiana Jones doesn't come back from this one.
2017 Movie News: Go watch the trailer for this Amazon Studios film. I'll wait. Okay, now go read the Rotten Tomatoes aggregation. Won't take long.
Now. A four-plus star book review from me and a host of other sources, agreement among critics from Den of Geek all the way to The Nation, and a cast of pretty, pretty actors...plus the fact that ...more

Mar 27, 2012
Mara
rated it
liked it
Recommends it for:
Anyone looking for reasons to avoid jungle expeditions.
Recommended to Mara by:
Kemper
You can see how someone, perhaps someone who goes by the alias of Kemper, would read this book and come to the conclusion that we need to destroy the rainforest immediately (see review and comments that follow for a glimpse at the behaviors of peoples who have never before come into contact with sarcasm).
Seriously though, as noted in my review of Candice Millard's The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey, and further evidenced in reading this tale, the jungle is a punishing, dan ...more
Seriously though, as noted in my review of Candice Millard's The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey, and further evidenced in reading this tale, the jungle is a punishing, dan ...more

THE LOST CITY OF "Z" is an amazing adventure in the Amazon jungle. It also chronicles the history of Amazon exploration and various attempts to discover a "lost city." David Grann is a superb writer and I enjoyed this book immensely.
...more

A well-researched tale by journalist David Grann about Percy Fawcett, the intrepid explorer who disappeared in the Amazon jungle on his search for the city he called 'Z'.
The part in this book that I appreciated the most was Fawcett's struggle to learn about and appreciate the cultures of the people he discovered in the Amazon, while at the same time, juggling his own biases against any culture other than his own.
In some ways, he was a product of his time, but the fact that Fawcett at least tried ...more
The part in this book that I appreciated the most was Fawcett's struggle to learn about and appreciate the cultures of the people he discovered in the Amazon, while at the same time, juggling his own biases against any culture other than his own.
In some ways, he was a product of his time, but the fact that Fawcett at least tried ...more

Part biography, of renowned British explorer Percy Fawcett and part autobiographical travelogue interspersed with bits of history of myriad obsessive attempts across centuries to explore and reveal the location of the legendary city of El Dorado
The description of Fawcett's expeditions felt harrowing and blood-curling at times, them being plagued by incessant deadly mosquitoes, fleas, poisonous snakes & plants, bodies being invaded by maggots, vampire bats, pirhanas and not to forget the in ...more
The description of Fawcett's expeditions felt harrowing and blood-curling at times, them being plagued by incessant deadly mosquitoes, fleas, poisonous snakes & plants, bodies being invaded by maggots, vampire bats, pirhanas and not to forget the in ...more

“Loneliness is not intolerable when enthusiasm for a quest fills the mind.”
I keep finding justifications for my (primarily) solitary life of reading and writing—as if I needed any further convincing.
“Exploration … no longer seemed aimed at some outward discovery; rather, it was directed inward …”
The Lost City of Z vacillated between a 3 and 4 star read. At times it felt like I was slogging through text right alongside the jungle trekkers. However, the ending was satisfactory enough to make me wa ...more
I keep finding justifications for my (primarily) solitary life of reading and writing—as if I needed any further convincing.
“Exploration … no longer seemed aimed at some outward discovery; rather, it was directed inward …”
The Lost City of Z vacillated between a 3 and 4 star read. At times it felt like I was slogging through text right alongside the jungle trekkers. However, the ending was satisfactory enough to make me wa ...more

**3.5 stars**
“Our real discoveries come from chaos, from going to the place that looks wrong and stupid and foolish.”
― Chuck Palahniuk, (Invisible Monsters)
I had been planning to pick up a book from this particular category for a long time, due to my personal fascination to Amazonia. And this one did seem a safe choice.
This one was the first proper-lengthy work by Mr. Grann that I picked up, after going some of his journalistic works, which proved to be promising enough. The book reads pret ...more
“Our real discoveries come from chaos, from going to the place that looks wrong and stupid and foolish.”
― Chuck Palahniuk, (Invisible Monsters)
I had been planning to pick up a book from this particular category for a long time, due to my personal fascination to Amazonia. And this one did seem a safe choice.
This one was the first proper-lengthy work by Mr. Grann that I picked up, after going some of his journalistic works, which proved to be promising enough. The book reads pret ...more

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

A great non-fiction account of British explorer Percy Fawcett and he’s attempt to find what he believed to be lost city in the Amazon during 1925.
Journalist David Grann try’s to piece together Fawcett journey.
I wasn’t aware of this story until the movie adaptation, it was such a fascinating read.
It gave a real sense of what the conditions would have been like for Fawcett.
Journalist David Grann try’s to piece together Fawcett journey.
I wasn’t aware of this story until the movie adaptation, it was such a fascinating read.
It gave a real sense of what the conditions would have been like for Fawcett.

May 22, 2017
Matthew Quann
rated it
liked it
Recommended to Matthew by:
Josh Bragg
Shelves:
non-fiction
A question for my nonfiction-loving friends: what is it you love about nonfiction?
I ask this question not because I have an inherent dislike for the factual, more that I find fiction much more compelling, readable, and entertaining. It’s why I’ve switched to taking in the bulk of my nonfiction through audio: I just find it easier to get through in that medium. Still, I like to take the occasional foray into reading my nonfiction. With The Lost City of Z, then, I’m confused as to what I make of t ...more
I ask this question not because I have an inherent dislike for the factual, more that I find fiction much more compelling, readable, and entertaining. It’s why I’ve switched to taking in the bulk of my nonfiction through audio: I just find it easier to get through in that medium. Still, I like to take the occasional foray into reading my nonfiction. With The Lost City of Z, then, I’m confused as to what I make of t ...more

May 05, 2018
Juli
rated it
it was amazing
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
read-audiobooks-2018,
backlist-read-2018
Percy Fawcett, a famous British explorer in the 20th century, disappeared into the Amazon jungle with his son and his son's best friend in 1925. Fawcett was searching for an ancient lost city that he called Z. The 3 men were never seen again. Over the decades after their disappearance, several teams and even individuals ventured into the dense jungle to find the famed explorer. Some of them reappeared weeks or months later sick and emaciated, and some were never seen again. No real trace of Fawc
...more

Another superb book from David Grann. I read this after reading his later Killers of the Flower Moon.
Grann researches, and then replicates, Amazon explorers' efforts to find the El Dorado (or "Z") of the Amazon. As in KFM, he focuses on the story of one individual, Colonel Percy Harrison Fawcett, and his extensive efforts.
We take satellite pictures and maps of the world for granted, but Grann shows so much of the world remained unmapped until the 1900s, and that the Royal Geographic Society supp ...more
Grann researches, and then replicates, Amazon explorers' efforts to find the El Dorado (or "Z") of the Amazon. As in KFM, he focuses on the story of one individual, Colonel Percy Harrison Fawcett, and his extensive efforts.
We take satellite pictures and maps of the world for granted, but Grann shows so much of the world remained unmapped until the 1900s, and that the Royal Geographic Society supp ...more

Two stars is probably generous. The rating stems from having known but little about the Amazon rainforest from an experiential point of view. Had I even taken more than a few trips to the National Zoo's only-slightly-muggy version largely without free-roaming pestilence, my rating would probably have been lower. So expectations and foreknowledge are everything here. The more you already know about what a godforsaken wasteland the Amazon is (from a nontropical, industrialized, rocking-chair, arti
...more

Jul 30, 2012
Michael
rated it
really liked it
Shelves:
non-fiction,
history,
memoir,
biography,
journalism,
bolivia,
amazon,
brazil,
exploration,
south-america
Excellent engaging read of a quest of a quest. Grann, a non-athletic journalist in New York, becomes obsessed with the obsession of an early 20th century British explorer, James Fawcett, with the uncharted areas of the Amazon near the boundaries of Bolivia and Brazil. His fame for several expeditions between 1905 and 1915 skyrocketed to nearly Airhart proportions when he disappeared with his son and his friend on a 1925 journey into the vast Mato Grosso wilderness of Brazil in search the ruins o
...more

The tale of Colonel Percy Fawcett--what a name--an Edwardian explorer of the most fantastically Rider Haggard kind. Derring do, apparent natural malaria resistance, absurd physical courage and endurance, mad as a spoon, obsessed with the Amazon. He mapped the borders between various South American countries, but became obsessed with finding El Dorado and the fabled Lost City of Z. No, really.
At the time received wisdom was that the indigenous tribes of the Amazon basin were inferior, weak, savag ...more
At the time received wisdom was that the indigenous tribes of the Amazon basin were inferior, weak, savag ...more

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 its portraya ...more
The book is unrelenting in its portraya ...more

Don't you think the magic is gone from this world? There's nothing left to explore or discover. And if I were to pack a backpack and trek off into the Amazon rain forest in search of a city made of gold and possibly the fountain of youth, you'd institutionalize me.
But not Percy (F'ing) Fawcett, the guy whose mustache and zeal for adventure more than makes up for his sissy first name.

He's the real-life Indiana Jones. A treasure hunter, not an archaeologist (and by the way, it's clear to me now t ...more
But not Percy (F'ing) Fawcett, the guy whose mustache and zeal for adventure more than makes up for his sissy first name.

He's the real-life Indiana Jones. A treasure hunter, not an archaeologist (and by the way, it's clear to me now t ...more

The jungle is super scary ya'll. I havent had this many gross out moments since i read "The Illustrated History of Cannibalism." So there is no way you will get to the end of this book without being wildly impressed at the abilities of PJ Fawcett and what he was able to do and when he did it. No radios, violent (rightfully so, btw) Indians, no modern medicine, and yet he helped mapped thousands of miles never mapped before in the middle of a jungle.
Likewise you will be equally disgusted to learn ...more
Likewise you will be equally disgusted to learn ...more

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.
So you can bet that my ...more
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 ...more
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YCLD Book Club: What did you think of Fawcetts’s wife Nina? How do you think she saw her role in relation to him? | 1 | 9 | Jun 14, 2020 01:56PM | |
What's the Name o...: SOLVED. Non fiction request. [s] | 3 | 49 | Dec 15, 2019 03:28PM | |
Book Snails Book ...: November 2018 BOTM: "The Lost City of Z", by David Grann | 8 | 13 | Jan 02, 2019 02:54AM | |
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David Grann has written about everything from New York City’s antiquated water tunnels to the hunt for the giant squid to the presidential campaign. His stories have appeared in several anthologies, including What We Saw: The Events of September 11, 2001; The Best American Crime Writing, of both 2004 and 2005; and The Best American Sports Writing, of 2003 and 2006. A 2004 finalist for the Michael
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“Years later, another member [of the Royal Geographical Society] conceded, "Explorers are not, perhaps, the most promising people with whom to build a society. Indeed, some might say that explorers become explorers precisely because they have a streak of unsociability and a need to remove themselves at regular intervals as far as possible from their fellow men.”
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“...much of the discovery of the world was based on failure rather than on success--on tactical errors and pipe dreams.”
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