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

David Grann

Why we're reading this: This one is due out in late Feb/early March of 09 and it's GREAT.

It tells the tale of Col. Percy Fawcett…more
[close] This one is due out in late Feb/early March of 09 and it's GREAT.

It tells the tale of Col. Percy Fawcett, a member of the Royal Geographic society, explorer extraordinaire. After many trips into the Amazon, he finally vanished during his search for an ancient Amazon society.

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Jan 23, 2009 Mir marked it as to-read

Shelves: the-americas

Percy Fawcett ...more

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Apr 27, 2017 Louis rated it it was amazing

History writers are not supposed to get too close to their subjects. Same for science writers. Too risky: it can eliminate the author's ability to be impartial and look at the evidence fairly. Fortunately, David Grann ignored this rule when he learned of the final voyage of British explorer Percy Fawcett. A swashbuckling character worthy of an adventure series, Fawcett led several early 20th-century expeditions to find an ancient civilization in the Amazon which he named Z. Inability to find his ...more

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Jun 14, 2013 Pang rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: history, nonfiction, around-the-world-in-80-books

What possess a person to go into the Amazon knowing that it's crawling with diseases and creatures that could kill you? That I don't know. But I can't say I blame anyone who wants to be "the first" to do anything. "Every quest, we are led to believe, has a romantic origin."

I've never heard of Z nor of Percy Fawcett, but after reading this book I want to know what happened to him, too! He sounds like a fascinating man. Born in 1867 and a military man, "he was the last of the great Victorian explo What possess a person to go into the Amazon knowing that it's crawling with diseases and creatures that could kill you? That I don't know. But I can't say I blame anyone who wants to be "the first" to do anything. "Every quest, we are led to believe, has a romantic origin."

I've never heard of Z nor of Percy Fawcett, but after reading this book I want to know what happened to him, too! He sounds like a fascinating man. Born in 1867 and a military man, "he was the last of the great Victorian explorers who ventured into an unchartered realms with a little more than a machete, a compass, and almost a divine sense of purpose." He became obsessed with the Amazon after his expeditions to redraw Bolivia-Brazil border. He was convinced "that an ancient, highly cultured people still existed in the Brazilian Amazon and that their civilization was so old and so sophisticated it would forever alter the Western view of the Americas" (since then, and even now, we didn't know much about the various Indian tribes, but we simply just classified them as "salvages.") So he named this lost world the City of Z.

At time of his fateful expedition in 1925, he was said that "although his hair was thinning and his mustache was flecked with white, he was so fit that he could walk for days with little, if any, rest or nourishment." People talked about how he'd battle anaconda, piranhas, and other jungle creatures and survived to tell it. So if anyone was able to find this Lost City of Z, it would be Fawcett, the Royal Geographic Society believed. Just look at his picture, he seems like nothing could shake him up! He reminded me of Curly from City Slickers: "Did you see how leathery he was? He was like a saddlebag with eyes!"
Percy Fawcett

Everything about the Amazon just doesn't sound appealing to me. There was vampire fish that made piranha sounded like kitten. There was a pit viper, one of the most venomous snakes in the Americas: one bite will cause a person to bleed from the eyes and become a corpse piece-by-piece. And you could get maggots growing under your skin and die. Oh, goody. Sounds delightful - sign me up!

Obviously it takes a certain kind of person and certain kind of personality to desire for an Amazon adventure, knowing what lies ahead. But this is not like camping in your local state forest preserve, this is sleeping in a hammock with all sort of things that want to eat you alive watching you. And we're talking about the early 1920s when the expedition took place. There was zero modern amenity and gadget! You had to have skills - real skills, like how to make a pillow out of mud, as Fawcett had. Or how to make friend with cannibal Indian tribe without breaking down and crying like a little girl. But yet the Amazon attracted, and continuing to attract, all sort of explorers and expeditions. There are oil and rubber, those are money to be made. Plus the dream of finding El Dorado.

I know I wouldn't last a day, but I get the obsession especially when there wasn't a lot of places left unexplored when Fawcett made his fateful expedition. To emerge from the Amazon victorious for the second time, when hundreds had perished, would certainly make him a bigger hero than he was already. Your name is forever etched into history. But anthropologists have different opinions on whether the Amazon could support massive population, let alone a "sophisticated civilization." Some say no way, while others are more optimistic. And if you're a scientist, wouldn't you want to risk it to prove it once and for all?! I could see it. I get it.

They typically have one common thread: obsession. They are about ordinary people driven to do extraordinary things — things that most of us would never dare — who get some germ of an idea in their heads that metastasizes until it consumes them.

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Apr 02, 2009 Stina rated it it was amazing

Ahhh, a nerd book for history nerds. Anyone who knows me will know that I have never professed a desire to head into the Amazon and embark on a months long quest to find a lost city. First off, my hair would be incredibly greasy AND I'd be able to grow a mustache that would rival anything on an explorer from the 1920s. Second, I'm not a super great adventurer or camper and bugs are gross. However, this book made me want to be the kind of person who did go on those types of trips... an excellent ...more

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Apr 30, 2010 Christine rated it really liked it

Excellent book! Really well done melding of the original expedition of Percy Harrison Fawcett, the various rescue missions over the years, and the author's own descent into the madness of Z. The main story is that of Percy Harrison Fawcett, jungle explorer extraordinaire of the early 20th century. This man literally remapped the Amazon jungle area, and did invaluable service to the world by working on the geography of this hostile area. He wasn't the nicest or most understanding guy, but he did ...more

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Oct 14, 2009 Colleen rated it really liked it

Shelves: non-fiction

I don't read a lot of non-fiction, but I found this story about the Amazon well written and very interesting. I felt that I learned from this book. One thing I learned is that I really don't want to visit the Amazon. Reading about it and seeing pictures of the amazing creatures that live there are quite enough for me. The weather, bugs and dangerous diseases that lurk in the dark deep forests of the Amazon scare me to death!
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Dec 01, 2008 Jim rated it liked it

Shelves: travel, nonfiction, latin-america

Rather effectively convinced me against contemplating any advanced hiking trips to the Amazon, what's left of it. An interesting tale of an obsessed adventurer who didn't know how close he came to being right, and the high price he paid for (possibly) his hubris. I was somewhat mystified that his family held back information that may have saved lives. ...more

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