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

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I'm a huge fan of classic and contemporary tales of adventure, but I don't normally read much non-fiction. However, David Grann's The Lost City of Z sounded too irresistible to ignore. My instincts were right; it ranks among the best thrillers I've read. What a story!

Actually, it's two stories. The first is the life story of Victorian explorer Percy Harrison Fawcett. A member of the Royal Geographical Society, Fawcett was an explorer in the days when much of the globe was truly unknown. He came from a family of modest means, and began his career in the British military stationed in Ceylon. But he achieved worldwide acclaim as an explorer of the Amazonian jungles and river ways.

Grann's book is most concerned with Fawcett's last fateful expedition, but throughout the first couple hundred pages, he recounts Fawcett's entire career and it's enthralling. It's hard to imagine the bravery it took to strike out into the absolute unknown--with little or no communication with civilization--sometimes for years at a time. Fawcett and his companions routinely faced starvation, bloodthirsty indigenous tribes, horrific insect infestations, lethal tropical diseases, deadly white-water rapids, poisonous snakes, anacondas, piranha, and other terrifying creatures. If, for instance, you're wondering what's so horrific about insects, then you haven't been treated to a graphic description of what it's like when a living human is infested with maggots beneath their skin.

Fawcett and his men (always men) faced death constantly, and it seems that he must have lost hundreds of men in the course of his career. Perhaps not hundreds. Fawcett, unlike many of his contemporaries believed in keeping expeditions small. He was far more successful than most. The chapters that detail Fawcett's interactions with the native populations of the Amazon are among the most fascinating. Fawcett followed his own instincts which often were in direct opposition of conventional wisdom. Time after time he succeeded where others failed, and where the difference between success and failure was the difference between life and death.

Here's the other thing about Percy Fawcett: I think he was the Forrest Gump of his time. His story is touched on directly or indirectly by a truly staggering number of historic figures including Mark Twain, Charles Darwin, Arthur Conan Doyle, Mary Pickford, Ian Fleming, Winston Churchill, H. Rider Haggard, TE Lawrence, and even Indiana Jones!

As fascinating as every aspect of Fawcett's story is, the real hook is the enduring mystery of Fawcett's last expedition. Over the course of his long career, Fawcett had developed a hypothesis that there was once a great civilization in the depths of the Amazon. An El Dorado-like city that he simply called "Z." This is what he single-mindedly sought at the end of his career. In 1925, accompanied by his son and a friend, Fawcett entered the jungle determined to locate the lost city of Z--and was never heard from again.

He didn't go quietly. Readers around the world waited with bated breath to learn his fate. The story was routinely resurrected for decades. In the eighty-some years since, hundreds have entered the jungle hot on his trail. Many have never returned. Author David Grann is the most recent in a long line of would-be explorers obsessed with this mystery.

And it is Grann's tale that is the second story being told. He's an unlikely adventurer--a not particularly athletic, middle-aged staff writer for The New Yorker. But Grann does get caught up in the course of researching the book. So much so that he leaves his comfortable urban life, his wife, and his infant son to enter the Brazilian jungle. Like so many others, he seeks to find out what truly happened to Fawcett, and/or if there really was a Z. We follow Grann's progress interspersed between the chapters about Fawcett. One of the most shocking aspects of Grann's expedition is just how much the Amazon has changed since Fawcett's day. Grann doesn't dwell overly on the ecological ramifications, but the juxtaposition is disturbing.

Time and time again I had to restrain myself from turning to the back of the book to see how it ends. I was as caught up in the outcome as I have been with any novel in recent memory. Success was so unlikely; I just couldn't imagine how Grann's quest would end. And I'm certainly not going to tell you. Go read this book! Run! Now!

The obstacles to proving his theory were overwhelming. As a young man Percy Fawcett became convinced that contrary to conventional wisdom a highly advanced civilization once thrived in the extremely hostile climes of the Amazon. Fawcett made his first foray into the region around 1910 and laid the groundwork for his world famous expedition in 1925. It was a journey from which he and his two associates would never return. "The Lost City of Z: A Tale Of Deadly Obsession In The Amazon" chronicles the life of this extraordinary individual and reveals just what he was up against in proving the existence of the ancient city he dubbed simply "Z".

Author David Grann, a staff writer for the New Yorker, unearthed the story of Percy Fawcett in 2004 while doing research for another project. Before long he found himself totally consumed by the Fawcett saga. He talked himself into travelling to Brazil in an attempt to find out once and for all just what happened to Percy Fawcett, his son Jack and Jack's best friend Raleigh Rimell some eight decades earlier. Suffice to say that what he discovered is a real eye-opener.
While putting together "The Lost City of Z" David Grann met with members of the Fawcett family and gained access to a cache of Percy's personal papers that were previously unpublished. These documents allowed the author to gain a remarkable insight into the charactor and thought processes of his subject. The inventory of items Grann had the opportunity to look at included Fawcett's diaries and logbooks, the correspondance of his closest exploring companions and his most bitter rivals as well as journals from his military unit during the first World War. As such, it is safe to say that you will find information in this book you simply won't see anywhere else.

Reading "The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession In the Amazon" has introduced me to a whole new genre of non-fiction books. I will likely seek out other titles about explorers and exploration. The truth is that David Grann grabbed my complete attention in the first few pages and never let go. I could not put it down. Very highly recommended!

David Grann has written an exciting book about adventure, exploration, and a mysterious disappearance which occurred in the mid 1920s. Colonel Percy Harrison Fawcett had a hardy constitution and a strong desire to find a lost civilization purported to exist within the Amazon jungle of Brazil. The story about such a civilization had been passed around by the Spanish conquistadors, among the first Europeans to explore South America. With the blessing of the Royal Geographical Society based in London, Percy Harrison Fawcett ventured forth with his son and his son's friend along with a local guide and carefully selected equipment. Percy Fawcett had participated in previous expeditions to this part of the world. He survived some harrowing challenges in the past, risking his life to discover and map this part of the world. His wife accepted her husband's need to explore as his destiny. It was a fire which burned within his soul, something he could never give up..

In 1888 he was a twenty one year old Lieutenant in the Royal Artillery for Great Britain and stationed in Ceylon. Part of his love of adventure and exploration developed at this time. It was in Ceylon he had received a letter with mysterious script which had been translated to relay information about lost treasure in a cave. He took a leave and discovered verdant jungles, lovely mountains, pristine beaches and people wearing flowing outfits in all the colors of the rainbow. Fawcett discovered some ruins but never did find lost treasure. However, the rumor of treasure from an ancient king buried in the region awakened his spirit and created a restlessness and need to travel and explore which would stay with him the rest of his life. It was also in Ceylon where he first fell in love. Through fate he and his wife met and socialized but eventually parted due to family interference. Later when they met again, their love was rekindled into full bloom and they married.

David Grann did a vast amount of reading and research to create a book which holds the reader's interest from start to finish. One feels the strong principles and beliefs which Percy Fawcett developed over time which would not let up until he made his last and most dangerous trek into the jungle to find the lost "City of Z" which he named the ancient city he was seeking. The author writes a superb biography of this adventurer and explorer. The dangers and risks are described in detail which anyone faced who entered this wild environment. There were hostile Indian tribes. Besides the threat of being killed by Indians, explorers faced malaria infested mosquitos, pirhanas, maggots that burrowed under human flesh and the deadly pit viper snake. We must keep in mind that there were no antibiotics or other medicines to treat various illnesses. Amazingly, the author also chose to enter the Amazon jungle and retrace the route which Percy Fawcett and his entourage took in order to learn more about the man and his disappearance. He and his guide met with an indiginous Indian tribe, the Kalapalos, who knew about Percy's expedition. There is a very satisfying conclusion to the book which realistically explains and solves the mysterious disappearance of Percy Harrison Fawcett and his exploration group. This is a most highly recommended book. Erika Borsos [pepper flower]

3/4+ of the way through the book the author makes a statement that he's now ready to tell the story of Percy Fawcett and Z. While this was a reference to the completeness of his information gathering, for me it was allegory for the story, itself.

I liked the background on Fawcett, and I liked the technique the author used to go back and forth between Fawcett's expeditions and Grann's preparations. I ended up not liking the fact that nearly the entire book was context setting for what turned out to be a non-expedition by the author and a non-story about Z.

***Spoiler Alert***
The author ends up speaking with the tribes who were thought to have killed Fawcett, but as a reader you come away with the feeling that even they don't remember the story of this guy - and why would they? Fawcett was just another interloper. Grann's following Fawcett's footsteps was a non-event in the story, and probably in actuality, as well.

There was an element of comedy to Grann's research. I laughed out loud when family members all of a sudden opened up to Grann with never-before-seen diaries. Why Grann when so many others had tried to find Fawcett before him? What was it about the self-proclaimed Twinkie-eater (I made that up, I don't remember how Grann described himself, but that captures the essence) that inspired confidence that maybe *he* can bring closure?

The story of Z? Conclusion: "who knows" Riveting, it isn't. Where there was a potential story (archaeologist Michael Heckenberger's research), the author doesn't appear to have been granted enough time to write more than a few paragraphs.
*** End Spoiler ***

All in all, a decent, enjoyable overview of an explorer I'd never heard of, but a lousy job of joining the loose ends the author weaves his story from. I don't doubt the accuracy of the re-telling of Fawcett's exploits, but I don't believe a word of any new insights uncovered from Grann's research.

I had never heard of Fawcett or "Z" before I read this book but found the description too interesting to pass up. It turned out to be a very good read and a real page turner; I know it sounds a bit clichéd but this is really one of those books that's hard to put down after finishing a chapter (...just one more then I'll go to sleep.)

Grann does a good job of conveying both Fawcett's fascination with the Amazon and his obsession with finding 'Z' and, I think, settles the mystery of his disappearance. Granns own adventure into the Amazon helps contrast how things have changed and how they have stayed the same since Fawcetts explorations.

The thing that was really missing in the book are maps and pictures; it would have made the book so much more immersive. Even a crude map with locations of some of the villages and routes taken by the different expeditions would have been great. Hopefully this is corrected in the actual release edition and they just didn't have them in the advanced reader copies.


4 1/2 Stars (5 stars if the release copies have pictures/maps.)

I included Fawcett in my book, Vanished, published in 2007. For all the people profiled in my book, I used many primary sources and then at least one good authoritative secondary source. For Fawcett, I found none that can rival Grann's book. This is the best book written on the missing explorer. Fawcett is a fantastically intersting figure and deserves to be better known in North America than he is. Grann's book brings him to life like no other I've read - I highly recommend it.

Grann's take on the adventures of explorer Lt Colonel Percy Harrison Fawcett is a welcome retelling about a man extremely well known in his time but somewhat unfamilar to modern readers. Unfortunately, he also takes us along on his own Amazonian trek, which may make for amusing reading to some (after all, he's a middle-aged writer for the New Yorker) but really adds little to a story that needs absolutely NO padding. The basis for this book is a 2005 article Grann wrote, and that may be a more distilled account .

Grann also is a little fast-and-loose. He consistently refers to Fawcett as a "Victorian explorer", when in fact Fawcett's first expedition wasn't until 5 years after Queen Victoria's death. A nit to some, but why not try harder? His style is chatty and adjective-heavy ("cold January day" is like saying "yellow canary") and adds a lot of details that may, or may not, be true, in describing every scene. And why throw in Charles Dickens' impressions of *his* ship's cabin when it was written 100 years before Fawcett's trip? For that metter, the bibliography is padded with Dickens, Arthur Conan Doyle, and even Hobbes' "Leviathan", but is missing two of the best books about Fawcett, Harold T. Wikins' "Mysteries of Ancient South America" and "Secret Cities of Old South America". Also missing: MAPS! How can you write a book about an Amazonian expedition and not include a SINGLE map? Photos would have been nice, too.

I've been interested in Fawcett for many years, so maybe I'm overly critical. It's still a good book, easy to read and a terrific introduction to this fascinating personality. I just wish it had a lot less Grann to it.

Just want to counter the few bad reviews: I'm a big fan of historical non-fiction focusing on any and all periods and genres -- and this book is one of the best I've ever read; it's an incredible tale wonderfully written. Fascinating, exciting, heart-rending, horrifying, and mysterious; a crazy, creative, wild imagination could not have created a more bizarre and twisted tale. My best recommendation: I couldn't put it down -- and was sorry when I finished it. Masterpiece of contemporary journalism.

The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon
Percy Fawcett was an intrepid man. Whether he was sensible is another question entirely. David Grann's The Lost City of Z entertainingly recounts Fawcett's multiple expeditions (nine, by my count) into the Amazon between 1906 and 1925, including the final one from which he, his son, and his son's young friend did not return.

Grann makes this tale suspenseful, in part by the way he has staggered his chapters. Three or four story lines are alternated, the journeys of Fawcett, those of adventurers who later went searching for the lost Fawcett crew of 1925, and the endeavors of Grann himself as he researched and eventually followed after Fawcett.

Fawcett was one of the last notable amateur explorers. He prepared in 1900 by attending a sort of explorers' school put on by England's Royal Geographical Society (RGS). After his first trip when he was sent deep into the southwest Amazon region to conduct surveys to help resolve a boundary dispute Fawcett wrote that "I knew I loved that hell. Its fiendish grasp had captured me, and I wanted to see it again?" He was a prime example of what Joseph Conrad once called "a geography militant," a man with a passion for geographic discovery. He never became rich from his efforts and he seemed content just to receive a little recognition, such as a prestigious RGS medal he was awarded in 1916.

In his younger years Fawcett certainly had what it took to survive in the raw jungle, including nerve and an apparent imperviousness to injury and disease. He moved fast with great endurance, a big advantage when food supplies were limited. With one reported exception, he was non-violent toward the Indians he encountered and he readily learned various Indian languages. He was demanding of his travelling partners with whom he sometimes came into conflict, but he also was apparently able to forgive and forget.

But by 1925 Fawcett was less than fully rational. For many years he had been attracted to the teachings of the founder of theosophy, Madame Blavatsky. One official of the RGS said of him, "He is a visionary kind of man who sometimes talks rather nonsense. I do not expect that his going in for spiritualism has improved his judgment." He went off searching for the lost city of Z, the El Dorado of legends, with only the scantiest of clues as to where it might be, if it existed at all.

What purpose did Fawcett's many expeditions serve? He helped map the Amazon region, encountered many indigenous tribes previously unknown by white men, cataloged many plant and animal species, and observed possible signs of prior civilizations, yet Grann does not attempt to make a case that Fawcett made any truly significant scientific contributions. In fact, Fawcett was sometimes contemptuous of scientists.

One wonders whether it was all worth it. The human costs were high. For instance, during his 1908 expedition five men died and the surviving party came out in a "pitiful state." For years on end Fawcett neglected his wife and family so that he could explore. In the years since 1925 when Fawcett failed to return Grann estimates that maybe as many as 100 people have died seeking to find out what happened.

Grann devotes one or more chapters to each of the expeditions except, to my bewilderment, he offers only a single paragraph about what was possibly the boldest of all of Fawcett's Amazon forays. In 1921 he did his only solo trip, traveling across Brazil from east to west into the Mato Grosso region. He was out for three months on his own, but we learn next to nothing about what happened.

Grann suggests that Fawcett was justified in his conviction that there was indeed a lost civilization in the Amazon, since that is what modern archeology has found. The author also reaches a tentative conclusion on what in fact happened to the 1925 Fawcett group. He touches on several related themes along the way, among them the ability of indigenous tribes to survive in what seems like an alien environment to outsiders, the competition between Fawcett and other explorers, the impact of professionalization and new equipment on exploration, the celebration of explorers in the popular culture of the time, and the later transformation of the Amazon itself.

I suspect that Grann, a staff writer for The New Yorker, may not have gotten some of his reportage here past that magazine's fact checkers. For instance, he has almost surely altered the sequence of what he learned when in order to dramatize certain elements of the story. That seems excusable, though, for if you seek a historical, professionally written, and well-paced adventure account of Amazon exploration this will fill the bill. Two helpful maps, several relevant photos, source notes, and a bibliography enhance the text.

This book was very engaging, and kept my interest throughout. The author very cleverly combined his story with the Colonels. It provided some real insight in to life in the Amazon, then and now. It also opened my eyes to what the indigenous population tolerated from outsiders. The irony at the end was extremely interesting, I won't give it away.. I found the book did end rather abruptly though. I was left with quite a few questions. Such as: was there more to the story of the ring? Does the tribe that may have killed Faucett still exist? If not, did they have a main camp that could have been found? Overall the book was very good, and if you are looking for a fascinating, if open-ended adventure story, you won't go wrong here.