The Lost City of Z

The Lost City of Z
A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon
by David Grann
★★★★

In the 1920s exploration into unknown lands was still incredibly popular. In this nonfiction tale, Grann tells the story of three men who headed off on the adventure of a life time. They went to the Amazon to find a fabled lost city, which they call “Z.” They’re never heard from again.

The party included Percy Fawcett, his son and another man, all of whom disappeared in 1925. Grann follows in the footsteps of dozens of others, who have all searched for any sign of what happened to them. The book is wonderfully written and hard to put down. The story is part mystery and part adventure novel. Grann’s own experiences don’t overshadow Fawcett’s story, but instead they add to the reader’s understanding of what the man must have gone through.

The Amazon is full of hundreds of life-threatening elements, including the bugs, Oh my gosh the bugs, there are mosquitoes, blood-sucking gnats, sweat bees and more. There are also huge snakes, tribes of cannibals, diseases in the water and more. Part of my fascination with the book was bred not from a desire to go there, but to understand the people who were driven to explore that intimidating terrain.

This book is exactly how I like my nonfiction. It’s fascinating to read, I’m learning about a subject I have limited knowledge of, but it doesn’t overload me with unnecessary details. It was just right and I loved all the literary connections the story has (with King Solomon’s Minds and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle).