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

By David Grann

I’ve been on an Amazon kick lately, partly because I’m headed in the region briefly next week, but also because I have long been fascinated by Amazon exploration. New York based David Grann, a not too adventurous writerly type, goes to Brazil in search of the remains of the legendary explorer P.H. Fawcett, a man considered to be the most famous of all Amazon explorers who believed that a sophisticated civilization did/had inhabited one of the harshest places on earth, which he called the Lost City of Z. In 1925 in what was going to be his greatest adventure, Fawcett disappeared somewhere in the Xingu with his son Jack and another young friend. Countless explorers over the ensuing decades went in search of Fawcett. Many perished and some even claimed they had found him living amongst the Indians. Through his journals, eyewitness reports, and the actual path of Fawcett himself Grann traces the route of the explorer and the end result does bring a conclusion that isn’t lacking in neither excitement nor truth. For anyone even remotely interested in Amazon exploration or the Fawcett story (which has spawned numerous cults) this account is well worth a read.

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

Nicholas Gill (470 Posts)

Writer and photographer Nicholas Gill is the editor/publisher of New World Review. He lives in Lima, Peru and Brooklyn, New York. His work has appeared in publications such as the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, CondeNast Traveler, National Geographic Traveler, Afar, and Penthouse. Visit his personal website (nicholas-gill.com) for more information.