The Lost City of Z by David Grann

copyright = 2009
pages = 284
source = purchase
date completed = 05/21/09
challenges = Non-Fiction Five

The Lost City of Z is the story of Percy Fawcett, an adventurer of the Amazon in the early 1900’s. The majority of the book is about Fawcett’s several trips to discover unknown regions of the Amazon. He eventually became obsessed with finding ‘Z’, which some say is El Dorado. He made his last trip in 1925 from which he never returned. Others have gone searching for clues to his disappearance, often themselves not returning. The author even takes a trip to the Amazon to see what he can find out.

The bulk of the book is about Fawcett and his life. Several of his diaries and letters have survived, which the author researched. There is quite a bit of information about fellow (and rival) adventurers and the Royal Geographical Society which supported and funded explorations. Almost as an afterthought though, the author goes to the Amazon as well. Based on what I expected from this book, I would have thought more time would have been spent on the author’s experience. However, I thoroughly enjoyed reading about Fawcett. The trials of the expeditions were fascinating (malaria, bugs, lack of food) and it is hard to imagine someone willingly doing it. Fawcett is supposed to be the inspiration behind Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Lost World so I look forward to reading that as well.