To put it bluntly, I am not an adventurous person. I tend to stick to what I know and what I'm familiar with, although since meeting my husband I have opened up a bit to the idea of adventure. That is one of the reasons I identified so much with the author of this fascinating and, dare I say it, adventurous look at one man's search for a great lost city in the Amazon.
The author, David Grann, who readily admits to having trouble with directions and even forgetting where he is on the subway, sets out to find out what made Colonel Percy Harrison Fawcett so obsessed with finding the lost city of Z. This book tells the story of Grann trying to understand Fawcett's obsession and learning about who Fawcett was and what happened to him after he disappeared into the Amazon in 1925, never to be heard from again.
Percy Fawcett was the last of the great English explorers. Born in 1867, Fawcett joined the British Army at the age of 19. The next twenty years of his life were spent in the service stationed mainly in Sri Lanka, where his love of exploration seems to have started. It is also where he met his future wife, Nina. Nina would turn out to be his most ardent and supportive fan, even though they would spend more of their married life apart than together.
In 1906, after studying to be a surveyor with the Royal Geographical Society, he was hired to to survey the disputed border of Bolivia, Peru and Brazil. This would begin a nearly 20 year connection to this untamed portion of South America and to his eventual disappearance, along with his son Jack and Jack's best friend Raleigh, in 1925.
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| Percy Fawcett |
During this first trip, and many more that followed, Fawcett began hearing stories of "white" Indians and lost cities deep in the Amazon. Many stories referred to a place called El Dorado. With his fierce determination and love of exploring, Fawcett was convinced that he could find this lost city that he named "Z."
David Grann, on the other hand, always had a love of adventure stories, but was not the adventurous type. But when he stumbled upon mention of Fawcett while working on another story, he was hooked. This fascination with Fawcett would lead Grann to England, where he meets with Fawcett's granddaughter, and eventually to Brazil, where he attempts to find out what happened to Fawcett and maybe even find the Lost City of Z himself.
The story of Fawcett would have been interesting enough, but adding Grann's own story to the mix makes it a much more relatable tale. Grann leaves behind his wife and young child in much the same way that Fawcett left behind his family in search of something that may not even exist.
I found this to be a fascinating look at what drives humans to want to explore the unknown. While I'm not sure I understand it anymore than I did before, it was a great adventure to "tag" along with Grann and Fawcett on.
If you are looking for a little adventure, but want to experience it vicariously, The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon is the book for you!
-- Post by Tracy
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