The Lost City of Z

I loved this grippingly readable history-as-adventure, history-as-mystery, history-as-biography tale of the explorer who disappeared trying to locate a vanished ancient civilization in the Amazon. I came to David Grann via 2024’s The Wager, another immensely compelling, deeply researched, and thrillingly rendered tale about mutiny and murder on the high seas.

It’s fair to say that explorers are pretty obsessive people, and no one does a better job portraying their obsessions than David Grann in this book about the British explorer Percy Fawcett. Fawcett made a series of expeditions into the Amazonian jungle in search of a fabled lost city.

His quest ended with his disappearance and presumed death, a mystery as intriguing as the one surrounding the city of Z itself. The title alone pulled me in, and once I started reading the book, I found it hard to stop. 

This book might be one of my favorite books. Grann’s riveting narrative immerses readers in the Amazon rainforest, where British explorer Percy Fawcett embarked on his ill-fated quest to uncover a mythical city.

The gripping tale delves into the depths of the unknown and the perils of uncharted wilderness, illuminating the human desire for discovery and the mysteries that lie beyond.

Reading it many years ago amidst the grandeur of Colca Canyon in Peru left an indelible mark in my memory, underscoring the book’s resonance with grandiose landscapes and the enduring spirit of exploration.

I first came across Colonel Percy Harrison Fawcett when researching Born Adventurer: The Life of Frank Bickerton. In 1911, Fawcett and Bickerton crossed the Atlantic together; Fawcett to continue his work with the Bolivian Boundary Survey and Bickerton to hunt for lost pirate treasure. I thought Fawcett might make an interesting subject for a biography: an Englishman who undertook multiple expeditions into South America and who would eventually disappear altogether in the Amazon in 1925. What David Grann has achieved in The Lost City of Z is very different from a standard biography: yes, he tells Fawcett’s life story,… show more.

As I was nearing the end of the research for my book, I was desperately trying to decide on a narrative approach that would allow me to tell the full story I had uncovered. I found the inspiration in an unexpected place as I read The Lost City of Z on my kindle by a swimming pool on vacation. Grann’s book tells the story of the British explorer Percy Fawcett who disappeared with his son in the Amazon in 1925, on an obsessive hunt for the ancient lost city of the title. Grann’s approach was to retrace Fawcett’s steps, and… show more.

David Grann is the king of non-fiction to me. His narrative is so smooth and exciting it’s like reading fiction. I currently have one published book, which is coming of age, but there's some adventure involved, and I’ve always loved the idea of someday writing a treasure hunt. Grann describes the exploration age perfectly, with Percy Fawcett at the helm, until the explorer’s infamous disappearance. Grann enjoys the mysteries of the Amazon so much, that he must visit the jungle himself by the end. Grann replied to my tweet when I reviewed this book. How cool is that?