Product Description

Colonel Percy Harrison Fawcett was the last of a breed of great British explorers who ventured into 'blank spots' on the map with little more than a machete, a compass and unwavering sense of purpose. In 1925, one of the few remaining blank spots in the world was in the Amazon. Fawcett believed the impenetrable jungle held a secret to a large, complex civilization like El Dorado, which he christened the 'City of Z'. When he and his son set out to find it, hoping to make one of the most important archeological discoveries in history, they warned that none should follow them in the event that they did not return. They vanished without a trace. For the next eighty years, hordes of explorers -- shocked that a man many deemed invincible could disappear in a land he knew better than anyone, and drawn by the centuries-old myth of El Dorado -- searched for the expedition and the city. Many died from starvation, disease, attacks by wild animals, and poisonous arrows. Others simply vanished. In The Lost City of Z, David Grann ventures into the hazardous wild world of the Amazon to retrace the footsteps of the great Colonel Fawcett and his followers, in a bracing attempt to solve one of the greatest mysteries. It is an irresistibly readable adventure story, a subtle examination of the strange and often violent encounters between Europeans and Amazonian tribes and a tale of lethal obsession.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #8260 in Books
• Published on: 2009-02-16
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 352 pages

Review
`A rattling good tale' --Daily Express

Review
` A genuine page-turner'

Review
`A cracking read . . . It's also a story of magnificent obsession'

Customer Reviews

A Gut-Wrenching History of Amazon Jungle Explorations

If you like to know about real-life adventures, you'll enjoy this book. David Grann writes convincingly in grisly detail about the many dangers and drawbacks of hacking your way through the Amazon jungle to find what might remain of "lost" cities described in legend.

The Amazon basin has been home to many extravagant legends -- El Dorado (where gold is used like talcum powder), Amazonians (beautiful, but dangerous, female warriors), strange "white" men, and bizarre cannibals. One of the most determined seekers in the jungle was British Colonel Percy Harrison Fawcett, one of the most highly decorated South American explorers in the first part of the 20th century, and a former spy and military officer.

The Lost City of Z recounts Fawcett's last expedition into the jungle, from which he did not return. Since then, lots of people have launched unsuccessful, an often lethal, searches for him. David Grann makes his own, following a route that careful research suggests may have been where Fawcett went. The book's conclusion will surprise you.

The story is written on several parallel planes: Fawcett's life; Grann's search for Fawcett; other searches for Fawcett; and the history of exploration into the blank areas of the global map. At first this will seem disjointed and a little precious. By the end, the parallel story lines wrap around one another to make one compelling tale. It's a very clever design that I admired very much while reading and appreciate even more now.

The book's strength is that you will get a sense of how dangerous and difficult it was to explore in the Amazon jungle. If one thing didn't get you, something (or someone) else did. Fawcett was blessed by amazing stamina, great physical strength, remarkable ability to learn indigenous languages, charm that worked on those who were about to kill him, and a seeming immunity to the worst of the various illnesses that usually beset jungle adventurers. He also didn't like those who didn't keep up or questioned his approach . . . a very hard man to follow, indeed.

The book's weakness is that it deals too superficially with many of the most interesting aspects of the story such as the anthropology of the Amazon basin as understood today, the prior Amazon booms (such as the rubber boom), and the ways that explorers learned their craft.

I was very impressed by the research that Mr. Grann did to look for Fawcett's route toward Z. That aspect of the story is almost as good as the better murder mysteries that I enjoy. It's well told, as well.

I thought that his self-descriptions otherwise were a bit overdone and often didn't ring quite true. Could there have been some exaggeration added for effect?

lost city of z
FROM START TO FINISH THIS BOOK GRIPPED ME INSTANTLY. FIRST HEARD OF IT ON BBC2 LATE DISCUSSION SHOW QUITE RECENTLY AND BOUGHT IT FOLLOWING DAY. BASED ON TRUE STORY OF MAJOR PERCY FAWCETT, ENGLISH AMAZON EXPLORER WHO WAS NEVER FOUND AGAIN, ALONG WITH HIS SON AND SONS BEST FRIEND IN THE 1920,S. FULL OF INTERESTING FACTS AND STUDIES AND COMPLETELY GRIPPING IN ALL IT,S CONTENT. SERIOUS MUST READ BOOK IF THIS TYPE OF SUBJECT MATTER INTERESTS YOU. CANNOT RAVE ENOUGH ABOUT IT. FILM BEING MADE WITH BRAD PITT TO STAR AS MAJOR FAWCETT. CAN,T WAIT. 5 STAR BOOK.

An absorbing read - the perfect armchair adventure experience!
An absorbing read - the perfect armchair adventure experience!The author is both dilligent and entertaining company. A fascinating story well told - one of those rare books where you feel yourself taken to a far away world and can truly escape from the mundane. A stress reliever and a sheer joy to read.