The Lost City of Z

A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon

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David Grann: The Lost City of Z (Ballantine Books)

576 pages

English language

Published by Ballantine Books.

ISBN:
978-0-7393-2834-7
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OCLC Number:
276781983

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4 stars (1 review)

A grand mystery reaching back centuries. A sensational disappearance that made headlines around the world. A quest for truth that leads to death, madness or disappearance for those who seek to solve it. The Lost City of Z is a blockbuster adventure narrative about what lies beneath the impenetrable jungle canopy of the Amazon. After stumbling upon a hidden trove of diaries, acclaimed New Yorker writer David Grann set out to solve "the greatest exploration mystery of the twentieth century": What happened to the British explorer Percy Fawcett and his quest for the Lost City of Z?In 1925 Fawcett ventured into the Amazon to find an ancient civilization, hoping to make one of the most important discoveries in history. For centuries Europeans believed the world's largest jungle concealed the glittering kingdom of El Dorado. Thousands had died looking for it, leaving many scientists convinced that the Amazon was truly inimical …

3 editions

The Lost City of Z

4 stars

1) "Fawcett had determined that an ancient, highly cultured people still existed in the Brazilian Amazon and that their civilization was so old and sophisticated it would forever alter the Western view of the Americas. He had christened this lost world the City of Z. 'The central place I call 'Z'–our main objective–is in a valley... about ten miles wide, and the city is on an eminence in the middle of it, approached by a barreled roadway of stone,' Fawcett had stated earlier. 'The houses are low and windowless, and there is a pyramidal temple.'"

2) "From its source, the river descends sharply. As it gathers speed, it is joined by hundreds of other rivulets, most of them so small they remain nameless. Seven thousand feet down, the water enters a valley with the first glimmers of green. Soon larger streams converge upon it. Churning toward the plains below, the …