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.

who called the book "captivating." 

Suspenseful. . .
Rollicking . .

.
Fascinating…

staff writer for The New Yorker magazine, and a best-selling author.

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

of empire to its closing chapters in the 20th century,

to all corners of the globe? Was it money, glory, adventure, or was it the dismal reality of their isles?

in 1867.

The hero of a Saturday morning serial, the

man who falls out of a plane and lands in a haystack

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.”

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.

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

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 non­fiction … Terrifically entertaining.» – The New York Times Sunday Book Review

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

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

directed by James Gray