Journey to the Lost City of Z

Percy Fawcett, a legendary British explorer ventured deep into the dense Amazon jungle, in search of the mythical civilization of Z, otherwise known as the El Dorado, a long fabled city of great affluence and wealth. The journalist, David Grann, tells the phenomenal story of Fawcett’s quest and great obsession.

          In The Lost City of Z, David Grann tells two stories. The first story is about Percy Fawcett’s ambition to find the El Dorado and the second is about his best friend trying to rescue him when he gets lost in the Amazon. This theme is very fastidious. It helps the reader not to become jaded of the first main protagonist and supports building up the suspense of the story.

          The Lost City of Z helps people appreciate the advanced technology that we have now to navigate and communicate, like GPS’s, cell phones, laptops or PDAs. It would be very difficult to get lost like Percy Fawcett with the advanced technology that we have today. Nowadays we can just type in the coordinates of a location and get there easily.

Cover via Amazon

David Grann also informs the reader about the different types of insects that Percy Fawcett encountered during his quest to the Lost City of Z which is very tantalizing. A few of the insects that Percy Fawcett encountered are the fierce, red chiggers that feasted on his skin, the kissing bugs that nested themselves inside of Percy’s lips and the treacherous millipedes that squirted out cyanide.

          The only thing that I don’t like about the Grann’s novel, is that some chapters are to verbose and informative which can sometimes eradicate the suspense and make the book a bit tedious.     

          David Grann’s novel was thoroughly researched and very informative. Even though the book is supposed to be an informative and historical book, David Grann still found a way to make the book very interesting. The Lost City of Z is a very titillate and suspenseful book that everyone should read.