The Lost City of Z
In 1925 the British explorer Percy Harrison Fawcett, his son Jack, and Jack's friend Raleigh Rimell walked into the Brazilian Amazon in search of a lost city Fawcett called Z and were never seen again. New Yorker writer David Grann retraces their disappearance through Fawcett's notebooks, the archives of the Royal Geographical Society, and his own journey up the same rivers, joined by guides and indigenous Kalapalo elders whose ancestors were the last known witnesses to the missing party. Along the way, Grann reconstructs the strange Edwardian world of British exploration, the spiritualist obsessions that drove Fawcett to believe in a sophisticated jungle civilization, and the modern archaeology that has begun to prove him partly right. Published in 2009, the book sits between adventure narrative and intellectual history, asking why so many smart men have walked into the rainforest expecting to find an answer to themselves.
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What you might want to know about The Lost City of Z
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
In 1925, British explorer Percy Fawcett walked into the Brazilian Amazon with his son Jack and a friend, hunting an ancient city he called Z, and was never seen again. New Yorker writer David Grann retraces his route while sifting through Fawcett's diaries and the others who died trying to find him.
Yes. The Lost City of Z is David Grann's 2009 nonfiction account of British explorer Percy Fawcett's 1925 disappearance in the Amazon while searching for a lost city. Grann retraced part of Fawcett's journey.
Yes. James Gray directed a 2016 film adaptation starring Charlie Hunnam, Robert Pattinson, and Sienna Miller. The film follows the documented expeditions and Fawcett's documented theories.
The Lost City of Z was written by David Grann, published in 2000 by Simon & Schuster, Limited.
The Lost City of Z is 416 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, The Lost City of Z takes most readers 6 to 9 hours to finish.
The Lost City of Z is a standalone novel by David Grann, not part of a series.
The Lost City of Z is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.