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The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon
Unavailable
The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon
Unavailable
The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon
Audiobook10 hours

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

Written by David Grann

Narrated by Mark Deakins

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4/5

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Currently unavailable

Currently unavailable

About this audiobook

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.

Editor's Note

An epic adventure…

Grann’s retelling of Percy Fawcett’s expeditions into the Amazon in search of a wondrous lost civilization is so well-written and suspenseful, it’s hard to believe Fawcett’s exploits and successes were real. An epic tale that will leave you wistful to go on an adventure yourself.

LanguageEnglish
Release dateFeb 24, 2009
ISBN9780739376997
Unavailable
The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon
Author

David Grann

David Grann is the author of the Number One international bestsellers KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON, THE LOST CITY OF Z and THE WAGER. KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON was shortlisted for the CWA ALCS Gold Dagger for Non-Fiction and won an Edgar Allan Poe Award. He is also the author of THE WHITE DARKNESS and the collection THE DEVIL AND SHERLOCK HOLMES. Grann’s storytelling has garnered several honours including a George Polk Award. He lives with his wife and children in Westchester County, New York.

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Reviews for The Lost City of Z

Rating: 3.935613826961771 out of 5 stars
4/5

1,491 ratings148 reviews

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  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Well I know this is a place I have no interest in visiting. It was a little shocking listening to this at work and hearing "the were cooking a quarter of a small child on the fire." Yikes!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This was a really interesting and informative read. Before reading this I'd never heard of Colonel Fawcett and his attempt to find the city of z, which he believed to be somewhere in the amazon. In 1925 he, his son and his son's friend set out on an expedition to find this lost city. They were never seen again. Over the years there have been numerous expeditions to try and find the lost explorers and the city. Many of these searchers died in the attempt, some simply disappeared. In this book David Grann is the latest to go into the amazon to see if he can find out what happened to the Colonel and his party.


    I found the chapters of the book that dealt with the Colonel's life and his expedition far more interesting than the chapters about Grann's trip. I also liked the fact that the Colonel didn't view the Indians of the amazon jungle as savages, while he knew that some of the tribes would be dangerous he always started his encounters with any of the native peoples by being friendly and giving them gifts. On the one occasion that he had to use violence it seems to have really upset him. After reading this I'd like to read more about the Colonel as he seems to have been a very interesting person.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    explorer, Amazon, Indians, mystery, lost city
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Quite an interesting true story about Fawcett—an explorer the likes of which this world may never see again. Brave to the point of stupidity, this man goes into the Amazon in a time when indians would kill, insects would send the body into deathly infection, and El Dorado was a mystery meant to be solved. The story spans not only Fawcett’s lifetime, but brings us to a present day hunt for the 3 man expedition gone missing in the 1920s.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    In many ways a fascinating story of exploration, hubris, and obsession, both in the original story and the author's endeavor to follow in Fawcett's footsteps. There were unsettling and gripping moments but also a lot of dead space and unnecessary repetition and too many explorations of extraneous details, part of the obsession thing coming in here. I think this is good for one interested in jungle exploration and the problems therein, but perhaps not my cup of tea.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    An amazing adventure tale through the heart of the Amazon. Author, and journalist, David Grann attempts to follow in the footsteps of Colonel Percy Fawcett. Colonel Fawcett was determined the find the Lost City of Z, oftentimes referred to as El Dorado, or City of Gold. Plenty of history and humor for an enjoyable read.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Beginning with a hidden trove of diaries by British explorer Percy Fawcett who disappeared in 1925 somewhere in the Amazon, New Yorker writer David Grann set out to solve "the greatest exploration mystery of the 20th century". In doing so Grann writes descriptions that make your skin crawl and feel terror that will not let you sleep. Recommend daylight reading.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    David Grann takes us on a true-to-life Indiana Jones adventure, a fascinating portrait of a man and his obsession to traverse the untraversed.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Really interesting! I expected it to be over-sensationalized and dependent on dubious legends. But David Grann seemed to be fully aware that he was on an irresistible fool's errand and that others have lost their reputations or their lives when they got too involved.

    Percy Fawcett is a very compelling character. An intelligent, fearless, man's man who loved adventures and could often do what everyone else thought was impossible. It was fun to read how Grann followed in Fawcett's research and footsteps 80 years later. The end of the book was very satisfying.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Percy Fawcett marched off into the Amazon looking for a lost city, and disappeared. It's not surprising, considering the Amazon is an enormous, hostile area. So that means it is surprising that so many people continued to think he was alive, kicking back somewhere, perhaps in the lost city he was searching for.David Grann is not the first writer to cover the life of Fawcett and while he comes to a conclusion that not everyone would agree with, Grann writes very well and brings Fawcett, his background and his quest for the Lost City of Z back to life. After "The Lost City of Z", I have added Grann to my further reading list.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Arm-chair travel at its very best. Frankly I would rather be boiled in oil than go down the Amazon it is super SCARY, there are all kinds of dangerous plants, people and creatures just waiting for you there! I did love this book which was a bookclub pick. The reason is that when I was a little girl growing up in central Africa in the 1950s, my parents used to have a young man who worked in my father's architectural practice baby-sit my sister and I when my parents went out for an evening. He used to read us Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's book 'The Lost World' about this fictitious valley in the Amazon jungle in which dinosaurs still lived...David Grann's book is about Col. Percy Fawcett and his attempts to find a lost civilization, Conan Doyle based his book on Fawcett's early accounts.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This was a highly enjoyable book to read. David Grann weaves a great adventure story of both the mysterious disappearance of Amazon explorer Percy Fawcett, alone with his own personal quest to find out what really happened and whether the mythical city of Z ever really existed.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Wonderful book! Well told non-fiction story about exploration in The Amazon. David Grann tells this story with the intensity of an adventure thriller
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Fascinating cross-hatching of the author's modern search to follow in the historical footsteps of Colonel Fawcett & his nigh-mythical city. Both ends of the story had their fascinating moments, but there were enough lagging points and overabundance of (IMO) extraneous details and sideline anecdotes that I dropped this down to 3.25 stars. Very good book for those wanting to write about jungle exploration and the problems involved therein.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Amazon exploration
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    An informative and entertaining exploration of an archeological mystery and the mythic men who sought to solve it.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Good exploration and survival story.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    A completely riveting read. The author brilliantly details how Fawcett's contagious obsession drove him deep into the Amazon and prompted generations of searchers, explorers, and would-be rescue-parties. The reader can't help but catch the infectious quest for Z
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Fascinating story about exploring the Amazon.
    I was really struck by what they went through and then went back out again.
    This was a terrific book to read.
    Good writing with great flow to it, I felt like I was there at times.

  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Gripping, fun, informative
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    History of Western attempts to find the amazing city they thought was hidden in the Amazon, up to contemporary anthropological understandings of how people might have been able to create complex societies in a place that is shockingly hostile to human existence. If you can’t deal with lots of descriptions of how people suffered and died, skip it, but I found it grimly fascinating.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    4.5 stars

    Even though this is a nonfiction book, it reads like an adventure story, great writing. I really liked it, and I'm looking forward to seeing what to do with it in the movie.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Good storytelling. Wasn't sure where the focus of this book was for the majority of it. Was it on the lost city or was it on Col. Percy Fawcett and his obsession with the Amazon and the city. Love explorer adventure stories and this one delivered.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    When I ask young people today who John Glenn and Alan Shepard were, I usually get met with shrugs. But until I read this book, I would have reacted similarly if someone had asked me who Percy Fawcett was. Fawcett, great explorer of the Amazon, media sensation of the 1920s! Well, now I know. Fawcett disappeared on his last expedition to find the great city of lost Amazonian civilization which he simply named, "Z."

    Not everyone has forgotten Fawcett, however, and a number of expeditions since have penetrated the jungle to see if they could find out what happened to him. Perhaps it was because of this fascination that accredited archeologists have followed to determine if there was any substance to the "Z" legends, and they have indeed arrived as some interesting findings. "Z" may not have been El Dorado's city of gold, but there are signs the hostile environment of the Amazon basin--and the book makes clear just how hostile it is--once did support a substantial cultured population.

    While the book didn't enkindle any desire in me to become an Amazon explorer myself, I don't think I'll now continue to think of the Amazon in quite the same way.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I could have read this in January as part of national mystery month because there is one burning question to Lost City: what happened to the Percy Fawcett expedition? Fawcett, his son and his son's friend all vanished without a trace. Were they murdered by jungle natives? Did they die of starvation or disease? All scenarios are possible and even likely. In 1925 all three went into the Amazon jungle in search of a legendary (imaginary?) lost civilization and were never see or heard from again. Lost City traces not only Fawcett's repeat attempts to conquer the Amazon, but the author's endeavors to follow his footsteps.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Another book from deep in my TBR pile that I read for book club. I love it when things collide like that. This book is both a memoir and a biography told in alternating chapters, a mix I found unusual and interesting. Very educational if not really topical, I am glad I finally spent the time to read this one.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    All-in-all a pretty amazing account of one man's obsession with discovering remnants of ancient civilizations in the middle of the Amazon rain forest. "Colonel" Fawcet was certainly a larger than life character and his obsession with discovering what he called the "City of Z" led ultimately to his death and that of many others. Up-to-date developments in anthropology and related sciences point to discoveries that show his "theories" were correct.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    In truth, this book is the culmination of many obsessions centered on the Amazon. From men who lost their lives or disappeared while searching for a lost civilization, on through the men who themselves lost their lives or disappeared while searching for the explorers who came before them, the searching for something or for someone is at the center of the heartbreaks and mysteries chronicled in this work. Masterfully, the author moves from past to present and back, exploring the dangers of the Amazon and its inhabitants as well as the paths that led so many men on to their deaths. Yet, for all of this, the book is something of a journey in itself, and the paths chronicled are so similar that they blend together into what one might well call a single out-of-control obsession for knowledge.All told, I didn't find this to be a quick read, but it was fascinating. For readers interested as much in mystery as in the many natural dangers of the rainforest, and wondering about the biographies and the men which ended in the Amazon, this is an ideal work of exploration and engagement.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    It just wasn't my kind of story. I tried to get into it, but I just kept falling asleep.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A very well written description of Percy Fawcett's early 20th century exploration of the Amazon. If you like this one, read 1491!