We have had two beautiful days of 50-60 degree weather but I have been trekking through the Amazon jungle searching for PH Fawcett who started out in 1925 for the lost city of Z in the kingdom of El Dorado and never returned. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. From the back cover "The Lost City of Z is like a wonderful nineteenth century tale of exotic danger-except that David Grann's book is also a sensitively written biographical detective story, a vest-pocket history of exploration, and a guide to the new archaeological research that is exploding our preconceptions of the Amazon and its peoples." Charles Mann
Percy Harrison Fawcett was a man obsessed with finding this lost civilization although many did not believe it even existed. Reading about the dangers in the jungle --the mosquito being one of the worst --made my skin crawl. The fact that he had survived many trips into the Amazon while many others did not, made him think this last trip would not be any different.
David Grann is a journalist who started out with the purpose of simply recording how generations of scientists and adventurers became fatally obsessed with solving the mystery of what happened to Fawcett and the two young men who were with him on this trip (one being his oldest son, Jack). Grann, who was not the type who could be considered an explorer, did a lot of research and even met Fawcett's granddaughter in Cardiff, Wales. He then went to Brazil and made his own journey into the jungle in an attempt to find out what really happened to the three men.
I have no desire to go to the Amazon but feel like I have been there and survived. Give it a try--and there are pictures!
I was just perusing Powell's web site and ran across this book on the Top 5 staff picks. I hope I can get around to checking this one out. (Have you gone to Powell's yet? It's amazing!)
ReplyDeleteWhoops - Darr was using my computer and I forgot to log him out before commenting. That's really from me, Christie. :)
ReplyDeleteI did go to one bookstore with Megan but don't know if it was Powell's.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you are interested in reading the book as I can't seem to get anyone else interested in it. As a side note--I read that Brad Pitt has bought the movie rights to the book.