The Lost City of Z by David Grann

Review and Giveaway

The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon by David Grann

368 pgs. Paperback

Doubleday

This is a guest review written by Tamara of Books by TJBaff.

This is not a fictionalized account of Percy Fawcett's adventures in the Amazon basin. This strives to recount quite accurately the information that Fawcett recorded about his explorations. It is mixed with the stories of a couple of other explorers that also attempted to find the lost city of El Dorado...and David Grann who tried to follow the footsteps exactly that Percy had travelled while searching for his mythical city of Z. It is unsure about why he even called it Z but he seems to have become obsessed with the idea of it and it had assumed an almost nirvana-like mysticism in his dreams.

This was a time in history when technology hadn't caught up with the dreams and needs of the adventurers in the jungle and when people went exploring they often disappeared for months and sometimes years...with no way of contacting those in the civilized world. Some never returned to their loved ones and the assumption was that they had perished in the 'green hell' that had taken over their lives. Hostile natives, disease or being the prey of carnivorous hunters was most probably the fate of all who disappeared but these mysteries just seemed to fuel the enthusiasm for hundreds of men and they all hoped to be the one to crack the mystery of The Lost City Of Z.

I was intrigued in spite of myself (I have always enjoyed a good adventure story) and quickly read through this book although it was a little dry and I needed to read it over several nights. It required thinking about as I was reading unlike a piece of fiction. The account also felt disjointed through parts of the book and I grew to wish that David Grann had just written about Fawcett and not muddied the waters by introducing some other explorers. After all, David Grann was interested in following Mr. Fawcett's footsteps...no one else's.

I did enjoy the story and was thrilled to read the last chapter. It brought the quest for the lost city of Z to a satisfactory conclusion. This book has been sold and is presently in production for a 2010 release starring Brad Pitt as Colonel Percy Fawcett.

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Thank you Tamara.

For those interested in more background on the story here is a fascinating interview with David Grann about the book at Powell's Books.

The Lost City of Z was also enthusiastically reviewed by:

Colleen at Foreign Circus Library.
Alyce at athomewithbooks.
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Thanks to the generosity of Doubleday I have two copies of The Lost City of Z by David Grann to give to my readers.

To enter:

1) Become a follower or subscriber (if you're not already) and just tell me you want to read this book. If you already follow, just remind me and I'll enter you.

2) Blog about this giveaway and put a link back to it and I'll give you a second entry. If you don't have a blog, email 3 friends telling them about this giveaway and copying me at sfuhringer (at) sympatico (dot) ca.

Entry is open worldwide until midnight Sunday March 8, 2009. Be sure to leave an email address if you don't have a blog where I can contact you.

Winner will be announced on Monday March 10, 2009.

If you've read or reviewed this book, leave a link to your review (or leave comments, but NO spoilers please) and I'll add it to the post.