The Lost City of Z

A century ago, famed British explorer Percy Fawcett led an expedition into the Amazon looking for a mythical lost city. The group disappeared without a trace. In the years that followed, dozens-or-maybe-hundreds of people made their way to Brazil to search for the lost explorers. Most would return without answers. Some wouldn’t return at all.

The mystery endures today. The book’s author, David Grann, found himself going down the Fawcett rabbit hole and trekked into the jungle himself. The Lost City of Z tells his story and recounts what is known about Fawcett’s doomed venture.

I picked this up on a whim. I don’t read much non-fiction. After a decade as a journalist, I prefer to spend my leisure time reading fantasy. Not swords and dragons and maidens. I want fiction—sloppy, trashy, dime-store, paperback fiction. I want high stakes, high adventure, high drama.

Holy cow, the jungle delivers. It’s hard to tell on a map, but that large green smudge in South America is a merciless killing machine that will chew you up and spit out your bones. I think I understood this, deep down in some instinctual lizard portion of my brain. The Lost City of Z makes you feel it. It’s like a horror story. Those lucky few who make it out of the jungle emerge sick, starving, and infected with two-inch-long maggots under their skin. It’s amazing that anyone goes into the Amazon at all. I think I would turn to ash if I even looked at the jungle wrong.

That being said, I’m glad I read this book. The author does a fantastic job writing about a mystery that, really, has no answer, and perhaps never will. He uncovers some information and reaches a conclusion about what happened. You can believe it or not. It’s a little underwhelming, but that’s history for you. Not everything comes to a happy or exciting end.

What really stood out to me was the information about the lost city. Many people believe Fawcett was chasing a mirage through the jungle. The author tackles this idea, comparing his own findings with the early accounts by conquistadors that sparked Fawcett’s obsession with the place he called Z. I wouldn’t dream of spoiling those answers here, but they paint a fascinating picture of what may have once been hidden within the “green hell.”