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

25 Books to Read Before You Die: 21st Century

These books create a stunning portrait of contemporary American life.

A true-life, amazing Amazon adventure-mystery. David Grann, mild-mannered reporter, treks into the Amazon to retrace the path of the legendary (and seemingly super-human) British explorer Percy Fawcett. Skillfully researched and written, The Lost City of Z is a fascinating read. Recommended By Adrienne C., Powells.com

The Lost City of Z exemplifies the page-turner. Like the Amazon (the “green hell”), this book bites, stings, and grips you. Curious about “the greatest exploration mystery of the twentieth century”? David Grann gives it to you gritty — with eye-licking bees, pit vipers, and cannibalism, and all served with a side of solid historical and anthropological scholarship. If you want to fall headfirst into an exciting book, read The Lost City of Z. I dare you. Recommended By Jonathan V. B., Powells.com

I've never read anything quite like The Lost City of Z. Partly the story of an early 20th-century explorer, and partly the story of the reporter who became obsessed with his fate, this book managed to be informative while reading like an adventure story. Lost City gave me the opportunity to live vicariously through someone else's journey, and it reminded me exactly why I am a person who reads instead of a person who goes into the jungle. The jungle might kill you, but The Lost City of Z will open your eyes to a forgotten bit of history and a rapidly vanishing part of the world. Recommended By Ashleigh B., Powells.com

The Lost City of Z is the perfect book to read when you're antsy for some armchair adventuring. This clever tale is both the story of Percy Fawcett, a British explorer who traveled to the Amazon in 1925 and never returned, and Grann, as he retraces Fawcett's steps in an attempt to learn what happened to him. But it's so much more than that — it's also about the Western tradition of exploration and exploitation, the punishing Amazonian environment, the lure of the unknown... and did I mention the punishing environment? Because, really, the most important lesson I learned from this book is that pretty much every living thing in the Amazon is constantly trying to kill you. This book is a fast, lighthearted read, rollicking fun and educational in equal measure. It's like living out an Indiana Jones fantasy, only you get to experience it from the safety of your home. Because, did I mention the punishing environment...? Recommended By Leah C., Powells.com

A New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle, Los Angeles Times, and Denver Post Bestseller

In 1925, the legendary British explorer Percy Fawcett ventured into the Amazon jungle, in search of a fabled civilization. He never returned. Over the years countless perished trying to find evidence of his party and the place he called “The Lost City of Z.” In this masterpiece of narrative nonfiction, journalist David Grann interweaves the spellbinding stories of Fawcett’s quest for “Z” and his own journey into the deadly jungle, as he unravels the greatest exploration mystery of the twentieth century.

"A wonderfully researched true story about an intrepid adventurer, a colorful cast, and an obsession that grips both him and the author." Walter Isaacson, author of Einstein

"Few things are better than experiencing a horrendous adventure from the comfort of your own armchair. Hordes of mosquitoes, poison-arrow attacks, bizarre and fatal diseases, spies in starched collars, hidden outposts of Atlantis — what's not to like? 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, author of 1491

"With this riveting work, David Grann emerges on our national landscape as a major new talent. His superb writing style, his skills as a reporter, his masterful use of historical and scientific documents, and his stunning storytelling ability are on full display here, producing an endlessly absorbing tale about a magical subject that captivates from start to finish. This is a terrific book." Doris Kearns Goodwin, author of Team of Rivals

"Suspenseful....Rollicking....Reads with all the pace and excitement of a movie thriller." The New York Times

David Grann is a longtime staff writer at the New Yorker. He has written about everything from New York City's antiquated water tunnels to the Aryan Brotherhood prison gang, from the hunt for the giant squid to the mysterious death of the world's greatest Sherlock Holmes expert. His stories have appeared in several Best American writing anthologies, and he has written for the New York Times Magazine, the Atlantic, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, and the New Republic. A collection of his stories, The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession, will be published in spring 2010.