The Lost City of Z A Tale of

The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon (2009) is the debut non fiction book by American author David Grann. It tells the story of the British explorer Percy Fawcett who, in 1925, disappeared with his son in the Amazon while looking for an ancient lost city.

" It was also reviewed by author Simon Winchester in The Wall Street Journal, who called the book "captivating. " Suspenseful. . . Rollicking. . . Fascinating…

David Grann (born March 10, 1967) is an American journalist, a staff writer for The New Yorker magazine, and a best selling author.

• Graduated from Connecticut College in 1989 with a B. A. in Government • Received a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship • Received a master's degree in international relations from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy in 1993 • Was hired as a copy editor at The Hill, a Washington, D. C. based newspaper covering the United States Congress in 1994. • Earned a master's degree in creative writing from Boston University • In 1996, he became a senior editor at The New Republic • Joined The New Yorker in 2003 as staff writer

What drove the British, from the start of the age of empire to its closing chapters in the 20 th century, to all corners of the globe? Was it money, glory, adventure, or was it the dismal reality of their isles?

Lieutenant Colonel Percival Harrison Fawcett was born in Devon, England, in 1867. The hero of a Saturday morning serial, the man who falls out of a plane and lands in a haystack

2 stories of the explorer chasing his mirage of the reporter chasing the explorer chasing his mirage

“I am not an explorer or an adventurer. I don’t climb mountains or hunt. I don’t even like to camp. I stand less than 5 feet 9 inches tall and am nearly 40 years old, with a blossoming waistline and thinning black hair. ”

The Amazon represents the means to achieving an obsessive need for glory and adventure. The Amazon posed incredible danger; its native tribes and deadly ecosystem worked to ensnare those naive enough to enter it unprepared.

Structure Fawcett's life history the author's personal account of his travels into the Amazon

«The Lost City of Z is at once a biography, a detective story and a wonderfully vivid piece of travel writing that combines Bruce Chatwinesque powers of observation with a Waugh like sense of the absurd. Mr. Grann treats us to a harrowing reconstruction of Fawcett’s forays into the Amazonian jungle, as well as an evocative rendering of the vanished age of exploration. … Suspenseful … Rollicking … Fascinating … It reads with all the pace and excitement of a movie thriller and all the verisimilitude and detail of firsthand reportage, and it seems almost surely destined for a secure perch on the best seller lists. » – Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

«Outstanding … A powerful narrative, stiff lipped and Victorian at the center, trippy at the edges, as if one of those stern men of Conrad had found himself trapped in a novel by Garcia Marquez … A kind of magical non fiction … Terrifically entertaining. » – The New York Times Sunday Book Review

The Lost City of Z, by New Yorker writer David Grann, recounts Fawcett’s expeditions with all the pace of a white knuckle adventure story. The book is a model of suspense and concision. By the end, Grann wins us over with his own hard won experience. He has geared up, abandoned his family and climbed into the vortex himself—stung by his subject’s obsession. But Grann differs from Fawcett in two important ways: Unlike the colonel, he knows he is no match for this badland; and equally unlike him, he lives to tell the tale. What a grand tale it is! … Thoroughly researched, vividly told, this is a thrill ride from start to finish. » – The Washington Post

«The story of Fawcett is brought vividly alive … Poisoned arrows, cannibalism, impenetrable canopies of rainforest, incomprehensible maps, utility pole size pythons, stiff upper lips, gray bearded geographers, steam packets, naked jungle folk and incessant drumming … all figure boldly in the epic. … What makes Mr. Grann’s telling of the story so captivating is that he decides not simply to go off in search of yet more relics of our absent hero—but to go off himself in search of the city that Fawcett was looking for so heroically when he suddenly went AWOL. » – Simon Winchester, The Wall Street Journal

The Lost City of Z is a 2016 American action adventure biographical film written and directed by James Gray