|
|
The Lost City of ZEl Dorado - the stuff of legend. But could there really be anything there? In The Lost City of Z: A Legendary British Explorer's Deadly Quest to Uncover the Secrets of the Amazon David Grann tells the story of Colonel Percy Fawcett, who was determined to find out. We hear of how Fawcett was seemingly immune to tropical diseases, and was able to keep going when others were exhausted. At the start of the 20th century he became famous for his near-legendary exploits. However, following the First World War it became harder to get funding, and he was competing against large expeditions with radios and planes. In 1926 he set of on an expedition, taking his son and a friend as assistants, to look for the lost city he was sure must be there. They never came back.
But that wasn't the end of the story. Now there wasn't just a lost city to search for, there was also the question of what happened to Fawcett's last expedition. Over the years more than a hundred people have set out to find out, and many of them never came back. Despite this, Grann decided to do just that, but he came back to tell the tale - and it turns out that the idea of a substantial civilisation in the Amazon hundreds of years ago may be more than just myth.
It's an amazing story, and I wondered at times whether it was really a work of fiction - but it isn't. It's the sort of book which will be enjoyed by almost everyone, and would make an ideal gift.
| Amazon.com info
|
|---|
Hardcover
352 pages
ISBN: 0385513534
Salesrank: 21967
Weight:1.55 lbs | | Published: 2009 Doubleday | | Amazon price $18.15 | | Marketplace:New from $9.39:Used from $3.10 |
|---|
| Buy from Amazon.com |
|---|
|
|
| Amazon.ca info
|
|---|
Hardcover
352 pages
ISBN: 0385513534
Salesrank: 51360
Weight:1.55 lbs | | Published: 2009 Doubleday | | Amazon price CDN$ 20.06 | | Marketplace:New from CDN$ 11.70:Used from CDN$ 20.55 |
|---|
| Buy from Amazon.ca |
|---|
|
| Product Description
|
|---|
| A grand mystery reaching back centuries. A sensational disappearance that made headlines around the world. A quest for truth that leads to death, madness or disappearance for those who seek to solve it. The Lost City of Z is a blockbuster adventure narrative about what lies beneath the impenetrable jungle canopy of the Amazon. After stumbling upon a hidden trove of diaries, acclaimed New Yorker writer David Grann set out to solve "the greatest exploration mystery of the twentieth century:" What happened to the British explorer Percy Fawcett and his quest for the Lost City of Z? In 1925 Fawcett ventured into the Amazon to find an ancient civilization, hoping to make one of the most important discoveries in history. For centuries Europeans believed the world’s largest jungle concealed the glittering kingdom of El Dorado. Thousands had died looking for it, leaving many scientists convinced that the Amazon was truly inimical to humankind. But Fawcett, whose daring expeditions helped inspire Conan Doyle’s The Lost World, had spent years building his scientific case. Captivating the imagination of millions around the globe, Fawcett embarked with his twenty-one-year-old son, determined to prove that this ancient civilization--which he dubbed “Z”--existed. Then he and his expedition vanished. Fawcett’s fate--and the tantalizing clues he left behind about “Z”--became an obsession for hundreds who followed him into the uncharted wilderness. For decades scientists and adventurers have searched for evidence of Fawcett’s party and the lost City of Z. Countless have perished, been captured by tribes, or gone mad. As David Grann delved ever deeper into the mystery surrounding Fawcett’s quest, and the greater mystery of what lies within the Amazon, he found himself, like the generations who preceded him, being irresistibly drawn into the jungle’s “green hell.” His quest for the truth and his stunning discoveries about Fawcett’s fate and “Z” form the heart of this complex, enthralling narrative. |
| Good, but somewhat disappointing in the end... *** |
|---|
| This book held tremendous promise, but in the end, it failed to deliver. In spite of its shortcomings, I would still recommend it as an interesting non-fiction account of a compelling expedition into unknown territories. It's a fairly quick read; good for a short plane trip. |
| The Lost City of Z by David Grann ***** |
|---|
A very well written documentary. I received an unexpected review and instruction of history while reading the book. David Grann is an excellent writer.
I've also read "The Rivers Ran East" by Leonard Clark, and I recommend that highly as well. Clark was also English, and explored the Amazon and Napo Rivers in the 1940's and 1950's. He also eventually died in the Amazon basin. This book is out of print, but still available on the Web. It's a lot more exciting in that there is a lot of adventure detailed, since it's a first hand description.
Clark actually found the Lost Cities of Gold, and carried out quite of a bit of gold. |
| Great way to becomve familiar with the explorers of the 20th century **** |
|---|
| Very interesting book about the Amazon area and the many challenges of the explorers, particularly Fawcett, in attmepting to navigate their way in this region of thw world. Well written by Grann. |
| Awesome and Poignant Book!!! ***** |
|---|
| A real page turner, providing an unexpected and powerful paradigm shift regarding the history of colonization in South America. Definitely worth reading more than once! |
| Audio Book, *** |
|---|
It is an interesting story, not an Indiana Jones adventure (something some seemed to find disappointing), but a true life tale of exploration, explorers and their lives and the times (described well, contributing to the story without braking pace) they lived in. It is well done, the writer adds his tale appropriately, neither too self depreciating or self aggrandizing, it is artfully done, the melding of the two tales flows evenly.
The story is told by other reviews so I wanted to mention that the audio book is well done, the reader clear and easy to hear and understand.
My only critique of the book, the author has that habit of speaking of two people, and then continuing on with the story of one of them without telling the listener (maybe it is easier to follow in book form where you can glance back and forward) which of the people discussed he is now talking about, like...(not a quote) "Frank and Paul went up river for four miles, he injured his toe and could not continue", causing occasional "huh?" moments but not distracting from the real tale.
Very entertaining, the characters (all) of them detailed artfully in a real life adventure. |
| 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 construction, are designed to satisfy - to put beginning before middle before end, character before crisis before conflict. Ultimately, what we crave from our entertainment, in whatever media, is story, and the stories non-fiction novels relate are often disjointed and disappointing; the world just doesn't work in the linear way we might like it to. Reading to broaden your understanding of a particular subject is one thing, but when I, for one, sit down with a book and a steaming cup of coffee, I read, first and foremost, for pleasure, and I have found only a little pleasure in dry recollections of real life, reiterations of events I would be as to Wiki while enjoying something more immediately involving - something fictional.
None of which is to say there isn't, from time to time, a non-fiction novel that handily overcomes my reservations. Last year's Leviathan, by Philip Hoare, was an extraordinary tale; as was Nathaniel Philbrick's fantastic In the Heart of the Sea and Longitude by Dava Sobel. Each of these books knitted together a spread of true events into a narrative more becoming of fiction than non, framing them in such a way as to give the illusion of linearity, of a coherent story with a throughline to take in those tropes we take for granted in imagined narratives. The Lost City of Z is the next novel in that vein, and it is surely the equal of any of the aforementioned. David Grann, noted columnist for the New Yorker, brings his wit and resources to bear on the disappearance of Colonel Percy Harrison Fawcett, a gentleman explorer of the old school who with his son and his son's closest friend vanished somewhere in the rainforests of the Amazon searching for the mythical El Dorado: or, as the secretive old explorer puts it, the city of Z.
Grann assembles Fawcett's rise to fame and fall from grace with all the audacity of a true admirer. His tumultuous life - personal and professional (in those days, hiking through the rainforest was as fine a profession as any) - and presumed death make for a fantastic story in itself, but Grann goes above and beyond, supplementing his thorough research with details of an expedition he himself undertook, following in Fawcett's footsteps nearly a century later. Though Grann's personal experience of the Amazon as it exists in our age only comes into its own as the larger historical part of the novel draws to a close, the two distinct narratives intertwine wonderfully throughout The Lost City of Z. In a sense, the author's own adventure functions as both a continuation of Fawcett's pioneering exploration and as a contrast against which one might measure the tirelessly natural environment he so toiled to reveal with its ravished and woefully bedraggled state today.
Furthermore, Fawcett makes for a fascinating protagonist: a courageous daredevil for Queen and country caught amidst the changing tides of the times, determined to blaze a trail where no Englishman had gone before but socially awkward and financially impoverished compared to the other, all-mod-cons explorers of the age. When Fawcett swears off the Amazon for the duration of the first World War, he has already begun to fall behind; when he returns to the rainforest, he has been hopelessly outmoded, and his last expedition - that which ended in such tragedy and wrought the tragic end of many of those who set out to follow in his enigmatic footsteps - seems tantamount to suicide.
The Lost City of Z makes it easy to see why the unknowableness of the Amazon proved so alluring, then as now, lavishly, lovingly describing eras in which those regions unexplored by man were marked on the maps as "gaps were filled in with fantastical kingdoms and beasts, as if the make-believe, no matter how terrifying, were less frightening than the truly unknown." The notion of the unknown pervades Grann's narrative; it is that which there is simply no way for him to research to satiate his exponential obsession which drives him, finally, to walk a mile in Fawcett's shoes. And though it wouldn't do to spoil the particulars of Grann's bittersweet climactic discoveries, suffice it to say the New Yorker columnist, ensconced in a 4x4 with GPS and Google Maps a few milliseconds away, is - in spite of all his technological wizardly - in his physical endeavours not quite the equal of the inspirational gentleman explorer who vanished with nary a trace so long ago. Then again, in this day and age, so few of us would be... though The Lost City of Z makes of the Amazon's inalienable allure such a fine case as to be almost irresistible. |
| A True Life Adventure... ***** |
|---|
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. |
| A fascinating look at one of the 20th century's most enduring mysteries **** |
|---|
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 of death all the while - vicariously through books and movies. What little boy doesn't pretend at some point to be a brave explorer hacking his way into a mysterious and undiscovered land in search of unfathomable wealth, then returning to civilization to accept the fame and glory sure to come his way? Then, of course, we all grow up and realize just how hard and dangerous such a life is. A few are brave (and/or foolhardy) enough to actually pursue such a life of adventure, but they are a dying breed - in fact, I would say that the last of the breed of the true explorer died at an unknown time and place in the dense Amazon jungle -his name was Colonel Percy Harrison Fawcett. His daring exploits and uncanny ability to survive in the most inhospitable of jungle climates brought him widespread fame in the early twentieth century (he was the inspiration for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's classic novel The Lost World), but it is the mystery of his disappearance in 1925 that secured his legend.
In the years following Fawcett's journey of no return into the dense Amazon jungle, scores of people from all walks of life have dared to follow in his footsteps, hoping to find some clue as to his fate - and many of them never returned from their search expeditions. David Grann, a staff writer at The New Yorker, offers ample proof that the obsession with Fawcett's fate remains strong all these decades later. Hardly the rugged, outdoor type, Grann's fascination with the mystery compels him to follow in the footsteps of previous Fawcett fanatics. His expedition to the famed explorer's last known location in the Amazon has an advantage that those before him lacked, however - what Grann believes to be knowledge, gleaned from a treasure trove of previously unpublished material, of the true coordinates of the area in which Fawcett disappeared.
Thus, this book is actually a tale of two expeditions, as Grann weaves the story of his own Amazon adventure into the story of Fawcett's doomed search for an undiscovered city of great riches (which he referred to as Z) deep within the jungle. The biographical account of Fawcett's life is nothing short of fascinating - helped immensely by Grann's access to so many previously unavailable source materials, including several of Fawcett's old diaries and log books. One gets a measure of the legendary explorer's true self - although it is the catalogue of deadly, oftentimes exotic dangers Fawcett and his men had to contend with that proves to be the most memorable part of the whole story. Suffice it to say that death stalks the Amazon jungle in many, many forms, and most of them make for quite excruciating and painful ways to die.
Gramm's personal expedition, as you would expect, pales in comparison to that of Colonel Fawcett - and it ends with the smallest of whimpers, far from any bang whatsoever. It is, to be sure, quite anticlimactic and for that reason I felt a sense of disappointment and frustration after finishing the book. That is why I'm giving what was otherwise a five-star read no more than four stars. All in all, though, The Lost City of Z is sure to captivate the mind of any reader who is the least bit interested in the subject matter at hand - or anyone who just loves a good mystery. |
| 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 they think of El Dorado, conquistadors, clouds of poison darts, perilous rope bridges and cities of gold. I dare say any with a passing interest in South America would also greatly enjoy it. That continent interested me about as much as a bucket of beige paint, but after this wonderful book I have sought out as many books and articles about it as I could - everything from William H. Prescott to Hiram Bingham. None, as yet, have quite satisfied the fascination aroused here - certainly not so wholly as Grann manages to.
Interweaving the modern-day investigations of the author, and the historic efforts of British explorer Col Fawcett to find the Lost City of Z, it is a compelling, fascinating read. A wonderful mixture of old and new. May the author turn his attentions to other such men who walked off the edge of the map and, if they found not the empires of wonder they aimed for, nevertheless mightily enlarged the hearts and fancies of man and boy alike for ages after. |
| 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 lost city. I was almost childlike in my excitement at the thought of reading this book. I had many questions beforehand such as; did he find Z, how long did it take, where did he disappear to, did he choose to stay in the forest or did he die, was he killed, what happened when Grann went to re-trace his steps and what answers could he bring to all these questions and many more?
I since felt a little let down by the book and maybe this is because of my own build up to it - I really couldn't wait for it to be delivered. So a little advice for people thinking of reading it is; yes read the book but don't build it up in your mind like I did otherwise you may also be a little deflated by it not living up to your expectations.
The things which worked against the book for me were that at times I found the narrative a little false/staged. An example of this is when Grann went to visit Fawcett's Grandaughter. The whole episode seemed to suffer from over characterisation - did she really mutter to herself (like a typical old lady would in a children's story for example)? and did Fawcett's Great great grandaughter (aged 23) really spend her time in another room playing a video game while a journalist had flown over all the way from America to come and interview Fawcett's remaining living family? I think I'd be pretty interested in that! There were certain other descriptions/scenarios/exchanges that I couldn't help but wander whether they had been added in/manipulated purely for dramatic effect? They just didn't always quite ring true for me and Grann appeared to try too hard to cover it up.
The book has inspired to me read more around the subject, after all it is so intensely interesting. If I could have a magic wand I would ask Grann to re-write the book but next time write it with more passion and keep it more raw; and spare us the bits you've added in which you think the reader needs to hear - we can see through it!
I also would liked to have seen one or two maps for the reader to refer to - although I understand some versions of the book do have maps included, mine didn't. This is something to bear in mind if you are purchasing a copy of this book - I really wished there were some maps to flip to when I wanted to.
I would also like a few more facts in the book about the amazon as whole, both past and present and about the changes much of it has undergone in recent years. I know this would deviate a little from the main story and yes I know I could google it but the inclusion of it would give the reader a 'one stop shop'. Maybe just add in a facts chapter at the end, then it is the reader's choice if they read it or not. By the end of the book I certainly got the feel of what it would be like to be in the amazon but frustratingly felt as though my actual knowledge of the Amazon had only been broadened slightly.
To conclude: This is a good old fashioned rip roaring adventure to enliven the senses and take you back to a time when the world still had vast areas of blanks on maps and explorers going into the unkown; but the book is let down by the way it is sometimes dubiously written. It lacks a certain something for me. What a shame. Grann/someone please have another go.
|
| Great read, facinating historical story! **** |
|---|
| Very well written, flows back and forth through the authors story and the tale of Percy Fawcett effortlessly. The author uses references from Fawcett's own journals which really crystallize the mental image of his amazon experience, and makes it obvious why it slowly drove him mad! Is it a riviting page-turner, not for me, but it's definately worth a read :) |
| Well researched...yes. Page turner? NO. ** |
|---|
I really looked forward to reading this book. I really wanted to like this book.Sadly, it wasn't meant to be.
I normaly read nonfiction and so am not unfamiliar with this genre. The author is well schooled and experienced so his research was very thorough. Clearly he spent thousands of hours pouring over letters, maps, interviewing great nephews, and 'cousins once removed'.
However, I was sorely disappointed in the final read. I laboured over all the meticulous quotes after quotes of who said this or that about Fawcett. I think the story would have been much better told in half the number of pages.
The final two chapters I enjoyed as it cut to the chase and we finally got down to business. I suppose the author needed to tell us in itty bitty detail about how hard and long Fawcett took to cover a distance that took him one month on foot and took the author only 2 days using a jeep. However, I did find the back and forth style of writing to be tedious.
Unquestionably, it is a book about a fascinating tale...is Z real or a mirage? But more pictures and less words would've made it better for me.
Rather than pass this book on, I will put it up on the bookshelf along side some other forgetable reads. |
| Swashbuckling fun but ultimately forgettable *** |
|---|
| I really enjoyed this book, but unlike most books I buy, I am passing this one on to a friend. I can't imagine re-reading it in a couple years. David Grann does a great job of exploring the characters, the geography and the history, and making it feel immediate. He writes himself into the story without detracting from his subject. The pacing is excellent, and the end is satisfying. A well-written adventure history that I enjoyed, that I think others will enjoy, but not one I need to keep around. |
| Excellent read ***** |
|---|
| Excellent read; enjoyed it a lot; plus learned some things about South American exploration i had never heard before. |
| Exciting read ***** |
|---|
| I've never read a book so quickly, loved the way it flowed, back and forth in time. Climactic finish. |
|
home