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

 The Lost City of Z was written by David Grann and published in 2009. The subtitle is A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon. This nonfiction book is about the British Amazon explorer Percy Fawcett who had become obsessed over the tales of a great and wealthy civilization which had been lost or hidden somewhere in the great Amazon forest. Grann set up a great story by starting with examples about the enormity and the dangers of the Amazon. He also wrote about the prior many failed attempts to thoroughly explore it. As late as the end of the 19^th and the beginning of the 20^th century, most maps of the Amazon were still left blank with the notation “unexplored.” For centuries since the original Spanish conquests, people had been fascinated by the legend of El Dorado, but no one had ever found evidence that it really existed.

 There is no question that Fawcett was maniacal in his attempts to find “Z,” the golden city that he was certain existed somewhere. During his prior excursions to find Z, he kept copious notes which the author then used to enrich his book. However, Fawcett also always kept secret the specific locations of where he had actually traveled. He did have contemporary rivals in the exploration business, notably Dr. Rice. Fawcett also had the advantage over other explorers of being seemingly indefatigable and being relatively immune to the many jungle fevers that plagued such explorers. These efforts were also incredibly dangerous with hostile Indian tribes hidden in the forest.

 

After wonderful background info about the various characters and prior exploration failures, the majority of the book was about Fawcett’s last journey which began in 1925 when he was 57 years old. He was accompanied by his 21 year old son Jack Fawcett and Jack’s best friend, Raleigh Rimell. When the trio was never heard from again, it set off decades of exploration by other parties who never found evidence of Fawcett or the lost city.

 

Grann does a remarkable job with his narrative. The reader learns about England’s Royal Geographic Society, as well as more details about Fawcett’s family life. Grann makes the adventures of Fawcett clearly come to life in a most dramatic fashion. I thoroughly enjoyed this book.