- Paperback: 400 pages
- Publisher: Vintage Books USA; 1 Reprint edition (26 Jan 2010)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1400078458
- ISBN-13: 978-1400078455
- Product Dimensions: 13.2 x 2.3 x 20.3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
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- #59 in Books > Travel & Holiday > Countries & Regions > Central & South America > Brazil > Amazon
The Lost City of Z
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Product Description
Review
`A rattling good tale' --Daily Express
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
` A genuine page-turner'
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I doubt that I would have picked up `The Lost City of Z' if it wasn't for the fact that I am actually going off to spend time in the Amazon, and I would have been missing out on an absolute treat. If you are planning on heading out into the vast jungle then you really couldn't ask for a better book for warning s of just what awful things can be lurking in the trees, rivers and even the air. It also makes the book rather grisly from time to time, mind you this book is really in the main a jungle from 1911 - 1950 so I am hoping in the now if you had a `vampire fish' making your nether regions a home or were slowly ingested by nesting maggots a nearby hospital might do the trick. Mind you I don't think anyone could stop the venom of a Jararaca snake killing you very painfully rather quickly. Sorry let me expand on this a little better; I think my excitement and enthusiasm for this book might mean I come across a little disjointed in my thoughts, bear with me.
In part really David Grann's book, for it isn't a novel, is a biography of the life and quests of Percy Harrison Fawcett and what became his obsession of finding the Lost City of El Dorado, a man who I had never heard of and yet a man whose quests and eventual disappearance had the world gripped for years back in the 1920's. Fawcett had a lust for adventure from an early age and in his life time as well as being an adventurer he was also a spy and fought in WWI, the latter is hinted as the cause of his obsession with the lost city, a kind of coping mechanism for all he saw during the conflict on the battlefield. He became so well known along with his adventures many believe he was the inspiration for his friend Conan Doyle's `The Lost World' which I am now going to have to read very soon.
It was however his disappearance that made him infamous and became the obsession of not only the press and headlines in the years that followed but of the public. Many people volunteered in the years after and actually went on quests themselves, not to find `El Dorado' - or `Z' as Fawcett called it, but to find the very man who quite literally vanished and either vanished themselves, went mad, died or came back very sick. This happened as recently as 1996 when a Brazilian accountant and his son decided to try. In fact the book then sees David Grann himself going off in search of Fawcett himself and following in his footsteps which itself adds another dimension to the book.
Grann manages to discuss all of these different threads as well as look at some of the other competing explorer's expeditions of the same era and never once do you get confused. All the information is digestible and at the same time reads as an adventure in a way. Grann also manages to look at what is happening to the rainforest at the moment which makes the reader pause for thought too. I was really impressed with this book. Non fiction doesn't normally do anything for me and I actually couldn't put this book down, in the end finishing it in two sittings.
In part really David Grann's book, for it isn't a novel, is a biography of the life and quests of Percy Harrison Fawcett and what became his obsession of finding the Lost City of El Dorado, a man who I had never heard of and yet a man whose quests and eventual disappearance had the world gripped for years back in the 1920's. Fawcett had a lust for adventure from an early age and in his life time as well as being an adventurer he was also a spy and fought in WWI, the latter is hinted as the cause of his obsession with the lost city, a kind of coping mechanism for all he saw during the conflict on the battlefield. He became so well known along with his adventures many believe he was the inspiration for his friend Conan Doyle's `The Lost World' which I am now going to have to read very soon.
It was however his disappearance that made him infamous and became the obsession of not only the press and headlines in the years that followed but of the public. Many people volunteered in the years after and actually went on quests themselves, not to find `El Dorado' - or `Z' as Fawcett called it, but to find the very man who quite literally vanished and either vanished themselves, went mad, died or came back very sick. This happened as recently as 1996 when a Brazilian accountant and his son decided to try. In fact the book then sees David Grann himself going off in search of Fawcett himself and following in his footsteps which itself adds another dimension to the book.
Grann manages to discuss all of these different threads as well as look at some of the other competing explorer's expeditions of the same era and never once do you get confused. All the information is digestible and at the same time reads as an adventure in a way. Grann also manages to look at what is happening to the rainforest at the moment which makes the reader pause for thought too. I was really impressed with this book. Non fiction doesn't normally do anything for me and I actually couldn't put this book down, in the end finishing it in two sittings.
24 of 26 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
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?
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?
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I took this book in the public library by pure chance. I had heard very very vaguely of Fawcett and nothing about the author.
I decided to read the book after having it at home for a few weeks and I could not put it down till I finished.
Serious journalistic approach, daring investigation work...it transports you to the last era of victorian pioneers. It is impossible not to feel you are also questing for Fawcett's adventures and fate.
A real susprise. Give it a chance a get hooked on it!
I decided to read the book after having it at home for a few weeks and I could not put it down till I finished.
Serious journalistic approach, daring investigation work...it transports you to the last era of victorian pioneers. It is impossible not to feel you are also questing for Fawcett's adventures and fate.
A real susprise. Give it a chance a get hooked on it!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Fawcett sucked up the pain and spat out Chuck Norris like he was...
I love books and this has to be one of my most interesting finds in quite some time. I've been on the old explorer trail ever since reading Dorian Amos's tales of his life since... Read more
Published 24 days ago by Mr. N. S. Williams
explorationI
In 1925 Colonel Fawcett and his son ventured into the Amazonian jungle to find the mythical city of Z.They vanished without a trace. Read more
Published 1 month ago by G. I. Forbes
Couldn't put it down...
This book is about the celebrated disappearance of the explorer Colonel Percy Harrison Fawcett, who disappeared in the Amazon in 1925, along with his son and his son's best friend,... Read more
Published 5 months ago by C. Ball
Tantalising...
In 1925 an English explorer called Percy Harrison Fawcett took his son and his son's best friend into the Amazon jungle in search of the legendary El Dorado, Fawcett's Lost City of... Read more
Published 5 months ago by Boot-Boy
Indiana Jones? No, a real life explorer who gives up everything to...
A cracking read from start to finish. In many ways the reality of the book appeals, whilst at the same time you feel slightly disappointed you can't join Percy on another quest... Read more
Published 16 months ago by Andrew
A gripping true story which reads like a boys-own adventure
Combines a biography of a real-life Indiana Jones, a potted history of the golden age of Victorian exploration, a travelogue on the "joys" of jungle treks and a cultural history of... Read more
Published 17 months ago by K. Ennis
On the Inalienable Allure of the Amazon
I don't read a great deal of non-fiction, and though I've nothing against the form, there's a simple reason for my disinterest: fictional narratives, by the very act of their... Read more
Published 21 months ago by Niall Alexander
A fascinating look at one of the 20th century's most enduring...
I think we all have a lust for adventure deep within our souls, even bookworms like me who must temper our innate desire to be manly men doing manly things - laughing in the face... Read more
Published on 24 Mar 2010 by Daniel Jolley
Perfectly judged book
A real gem this, and my favourite book of 2009. An absolutely perfect book for those lovers of adventure and old romance, and any who feel that giddy 'grip' on the imagination when... Read more
Published on 4 Feb 2010 by Paddington
I would have given 2.5 stars if possible
I find Fawcett fascinating and was eager to read of his journeys into the Amazon in the 1920s. I was truly intrigued as to where he had disappeared to and whether he had found his... Read more
Published on 10 Nov 2009 by J. Fenn
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