DAVID GRANN is the author of the #1 New York Times bestsellers KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON and THE LOST CITY OF Z. KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON was a finalist for The National Book Award and won an Edgar Allan Poe Award. He is also the author of THE WHITE DARKNESS and the collection THE DEVIL AND SHERLOCK HOLMES. Grann's storytelling has garnered several honors, including a George Polk Award. He lives with his wife and children in New York.
“Suspenseful. . . . Rollicking. . . . Reads with all the pace and
excitement of a movie thriller. . . . The Lost City of Z is at once
a biography, a detective story and a wonderfully vivid piece of
travel writing that combines Bruce Chatwinesque powers of
observation with a Waugh-like sense of the absurd. Mr. Grann treats
us to a harrowing reconstruction of Fawcett’s forays into the
Amazonian jungle, as well as an evocative rendering of the vanished
age of exploration.”
—Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times
“Breathtaking. . . . Grann brings Fawcett’s remarkable story to a
beautifully written, perfectly paced fruition. . . . Any writer who
can breathe life into letters written by scientists in the early
1900s deserves more than a hat tip.”
—The Los Angeles Times
“Brilliant. . . . Impressively researched and skillfully crafted. .
. . Grann makes abundantly clear in this fascinating, epic story of
exploration and obsession, [that] the lethal attraction of the
Amazon mystery remains strong.”
—The Boston Globe
“A smart biographical page-turner.”
—USA Today
“Grann escapes death and tracks down Z, giving the reader the kind
of Indiana Jones kicks best experienced vicariously.”
—Details
“A riveting, exciting and thoroughly compelling tale of
adventure.”
—John Grisham, internationally acclaimed #1 bestselling author
“Thoroughly researched, vividly told. . . . Grann recounts
Fawcett’s expeditions with all the pace of a white-knuckle
adventure story. . . . A thrill ride from start to finish.”
—The Washington Post
“The story of Z goes to the heart of the central questions of our
age. In the battle between man and a hostile environment, who wins?
A fascinating and brilliant book.”
—Malcolm Gladwell, bestselling author of Talking to Strangers
“A spellbinding tale that produces fresh surprises around each
turn. . . . An amazing story.”
—Dallas Morning News
“A fascinating yarn that touches on science, history, and some
truly obsessive personalities.”
—Entertainment Weekly
“There is something about Fawcett’s spirit and self-assurance that
captivates. . . . To read The Lost City of Z is to feel grateful
that Grann himself bothered to set out for the Amazon in search of
the bones of an explorer whose body was long ago reclaimed by the
jungle.”
—Christian Science Monitor
“In a hyperconnected and exhaustively charted world, here is a
revelation about wildness and the mad desire to plunge into it. . .
. Unfathomably riveting. . . . Grann wildly delivers the
goods.”
—GQ
“A blockbuster tale of adventure.”
—New York Observer
“Marvelous. . . . [Grann] combines a colorful narrative of
Fawcett’s early life, military career, jungle treks, theories and
even conversations with a biography of an extraordinary man and an
overview of the last great and highly competitive age of
exploration.”
—Bloomberg News
“A blood-stirring reading experience.”
—The Denver Post
“A deeply satisfying revelation. . . . What could be
better—obsession, mystery, deadly insects, shrunken heads,
suppurating wounds, hostile tribesmen—all for us to savor in our
homes, safely before the fire.”
—Erik Larson, bestselling author of The Splendid and the Vile and
The Devil in the White City
“What makes Mr. Grann’s telling of the story so captivating is that
he decides not simply to go off in search of yet more relics of our
absent hero—but to go off himself in search of the city that
Fawcett was looking for so heroically when he suddenly went
AWOL.”
—Simon Winchester, The Wall Street Journal
“Fast-paced adventure. . . . Grann delights us with the lure of
obsession under a canopy of trees.”
—Cleveland Plain Dealer
“Absorbing and fair-minded. . . . In restoring a life that history
has swallowed from general view, and vindicating a crackpot theory,
Mr. Grann has also exposed the toll that explorers often took on
those who loved or depended on them.”
—Richard B. Woodward, The New York Times
“An engrossing book, whose protagonist could outmarch Lara Croft
and out-think Indiana Jones. . . . It’s almost enough to make you
reach for a backpack.”
—The Daily Telegraph (London)
“A riveting adventure-mystery in the tradition of Conan Doyle’s The
Lost World, said to be inspired by Fawcett.”
—The Toronto Star
“Perfect for armchair travelers and readers with fond childhood
memories of books recounting tales of adventure in the dark wild. .
. . What [Grann] found should help change how we think about the
Amazon. . . . Read it, shiver with delight and thank your lucky
stars you’re never going to get as close to a candirú as Fawcett
and Grann did. (Look it up on Wikipedia, if you dare.)” —Richmond
Times-Dispatch
“Thrilling. . . . What a story. . . . The beauty is that as
incredible as it is, it’s true.”
—Daily News
“Outstanding. . . . A powerful narrative, stiff lipped and
Victorian at the center, trippy at the edges, as if one of those
stern men of Conrad had found himself trapped in a novel by García
Márquez.”
—Rich Cohen, The New York Times Book Review
“Did Grann find the lost city? . . . It’s worth reading every page
of this marvelous book to find out.”
—Houston Chronicle
“Grann is no hard-as-nails explorer, and his self-deprecating
personal narrative . . . serves as a comic counterpoint to the
superhuman exploits of Fawcett. Grann may not be able to hack the
wilderness very well, but as a storyteller he’s first-rate.”
—Outside
“Grann has an extraordinary sense of pacing, and his scenes of
forest adventure are dispatched in passages of swift, arresting
simplicity. . . . A splendid, suspenseful book.”
—Bookforum
“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, Pulitzer Prize-wiining author
“A thrilling yarn. . . . What [Grann] finds is what makes The Lost
City of Z so gratifying, and in the end he, and we along with him,
find ourselves stunned by what Percy Fawcett discovered.”
—The Oregonian
“Grann paints a vivid picture of the final days of trail-blazing,
Earth-bound grand exploration, before airplanes and radios began
stripping the mystery from the unknown parts of the world.”
—The Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk, VA)
“Meticulously researched and spellbinding. . . . Reads like a cross
between an Indiana Jones adventure and a Gabriel Garcia Marquez
novel. . . . Gripping.”
—The Ottawa Citizen
“Irresistible. . . . At once a biography of Fawcett, a history of
the era of exploration, a science book on the nature and
ethnography of the Amazon and a thrilling armchair adventure. . . .
[It] has everything to fire the imagination: Romance, nostalgia,
bravery, monomania, hardship, adventure, science, tragedy,
mystery.”
—South Florida Sun Sentinel
“The Lost City of Z is meticulously researched, riveting and
horrifying, guided by a core mystery that seems unimaginable and an
author driven into the depths of the jungle by his daring to
imagine it.”
—Philadelphia City Paper
“Absorbing. . . . A wonderful story of a lost age of heroic
exploration.”
—The Sunday Times (London)
“Tantalizing. . . . Grann gives us a glimpse of the vanished age of
exploration [as well as] a suspenseful, often very funny account of
his own trek as a complete amateur into the ‘green hell’ of the
Amazon. . . . Immensely entertaining.”
—The Gazette (Montreal)
“Thankfully, for those of us who secretly live and breath for the
swashbuckling adventure tale, every now and then a book comes along
that renews our faith in the epic quest narrative, its ability to
inform and enlighten even as it feeds our most primal need for
dramatic amusement. [The Lost City of Z] succeeds tremendously in
these pursuits.”
—The Globe and Mail (Canada)
In 1925, renowned British explorer Col. Percy Harrison Fawcett embarked on a much publicized search to find the city of Z, site of an ancient Amazonian civilization that may or may not have existed. Fawcett, along with his grown son Jack, never returned, but that didn't stop countless others, including actors, college professors and well-funded explorers from venturing into the jungle to find Fawcett or the city. Among the wannabe explorers is Grann, a staff writer for the New Yorker, who has bad eyes and a worse sense of direction. He became interested in Fawcett while researching another story, eventually venturing into the Amazon to satisfy his all-consuming curiosity about the explorer and his fatal mission. Largely about Fawcett, the book examines the stranglehold of passion as Grann's vigorous research mirrors Fawcett's obsession with uncovering the mysteries of the jungle. By interweaving the great story of Fawcett with his own investigative escapades in South America and Britain, Grann provides an in-depth, captivating character study that has the relentless energy of a classic adventure tale. (Feb.) Copyright 2008 Reed Business Information.
"Suspenseful. . . . Rollicking. . . . Reads with all the pace and
excitement of a movie thriller. . . . The Lost City of Z is
at once a biography, a detective story and a wonderfully vivid
piece of travel writing that combines Bruce Chatwinesque powers of
observation with a Waugh-like sense of the absurd. Mr. Grann treats
us to a harrowing reconstruction of Fawcett's forays into the
Amazonian jungle, as well as an evocative rendering of the vanished
age of exploration."
-Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times
"Breathtaking. . . . Grann brings Fawcett's remarkable story to a
beautifully written, perfectly paced fruition. . . . Any writer who
can breathe life into letters written by scientists in the early
1900s deserves more than a hat tip."
-The Los Angeles Times
"Brilliant. . . . Impressively researched and skillfully crafted. .
. . Grann makes abundantly clear in this fascinating, epic story of
exploration and obsession, [that] the lethal attraction of the
Amazon mystery remains strong."
-The Boston Globe
"A smart biographical page-turner."
-USA Today
"Grann escapes death and tracks down Z, giving the reader the kind
of Indiana Jones kicks best experienced vicariously."
-Details
"A riveting, exciting and thoroughly compelling tale of
adventure."
-John Grisham, internationally acclaimed #1 bestselling
author
"Thoroughly researched, vividly told. . . . Grann recounts
Fawcett's expeditions with all the pace of a white-knuckle
adventure story. . . . A thrill ride from start to finish."
-The Washington Post
"The story of Z goes to the heart of the central questions of our
age. In the battle between man and a hostile environment, who wins?
A fascinating and brilliant book."
-Malcolm Gladwell, bestselling author of Talking to
Strangers
"A spellbinding tale that produces fresh surprises around each
turn. . . . An amazing story."
-Dallas Morning News
"A fascinating yarn that touches on science, history, and some
truly obsessive personalities."
-Entertainment Weekly
"There is something about Fawcett's spirit and self-assurance that
captivates. . . . To read The Lost City of Z is to feel grateful
that Grann himself bothered to set out for the Amazon in search of
the bones of an explorer whose body was long ago reclaimed by the
jungle."
-Christian Science Monitor
"In a hyperconnected and exhaustively charted world, here is a
revelation about wildness and the mad desire to plunge into it. . .
. Unfathomably riveting. . . . Grann wildly delivers the
goods."
-GQ
"A blockbuster tale of adventure."
-New York Observer
"Marvelous. . . . [Grann] combines a colorful narrative of
Fawcett's early life, military career, jungle treks, theories and
even conversations with a biography of an extraordinary man and an
overview of the last great and highly competitive age of
exploration."
-Bloomberg News
"A blood-stirring reading experience."
-The Denver Post
"A deeply satisfying revelation. . . . What could be
better-obsession, mystery, deadly insects, shrunken heads,
suppurating wounds, hostile tribesmen-all for us to savor in our
homes, safely before the fire."
-Erik Larson, bestselling author of The Splendid and the
Vile and The Devil in the White City
"What makes Mr. Grann's telling of the story so captivating is that
he decides not simply to go off in search of yet more relics of our
absent hero-but to go off himself in search of the city that
Fawcett was looking for so heroically when he suddenly went
AWOL."
-Simon Winchester, The Wall Street Journal
"Fast-paced adventure. . . . Grann delights us with the lure of
obsession under a canopy of trees."
-Cleveland Plain Dealer
"Absorbing and fair-minded. . . . In restoring a life that history
has swallowed from general view, and vindicating a crackpot theory,
Mr. Grann has also exposed the toll that explorers often took on
those who loved or depended on them."
-Richard B. Woodward, The New York Times
"An engrossing book, whose protagonist could outmarch Lara Croft
and out-think Indiana Jones. . . . It's almost enough to make you
reach for a backpack."
-The Daily Telegraph (London)
"A riveting adventure-mystery in the tradition of Conan Doyle's The
Lost World, said to be inspired by Fawcett."
-The Toronto Star
"Perfect for armchair travelers and readers with fond childhood
memories of books recounting tales of adventure in the dark wild. .
. . What [Grann] found should help change how we think about the
Amazon. . . . Read it, shiver with delight and thank your lucky
stars you're never going to get as close to a candiru as Fawcett
and Grann did. (Look it up on Wikipedia, if you dare.)"
-Richmond Times-Dispatch
"Thrilling. . . . What a story. . . . The beauty is that as
incredible as it is, it's true."
-Daily News
"Outstanding. . . . A powerful narrative, stiff lipped and
Victorian at the center, trippy at the edges, as if one of those
stern men of Conrad had found himself trapped in a novel by Garcia
Marquez."
-Rich Cohen, The New York Times Book Review
"Did Grann find the lost city? . . . It's worth reading every page
of this marvelous book to find out."
-Houston Chronicle
"Grann is no hard-as-nails explorer, and his self-deprecating
personal narrative . . . serves as a comic counterpoint to the
superhuman exploits of Fawcett. Grann may not be able to hack the
wilderness very well, but as a storyteller he's first-rate."
-Outside
"Grann has an extraordinary sense of pacing, and his scenes of
forest adventure are dispatched in passages of swift, arresting
simplicity. . . . A splendid, suspenseful book."
-Bookforum
"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, Pulitzer Prize-wiining author
"A thrilling yarn. . . . What [Grann] finds is what makes The
Lost City of Z so gratifying, and in the end he, and we along
with him, find ourselves stunned by what Percy Fawcett
discovered."
-The Oregonian
"Grann paints a vivid picture of the final days of trail-blazing,
Earth-bound grand exploration, before airplanes and radios began
stripping the mystery from the unknown parts of the world."
-The Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk, VA)
"Meticulously researched and spellbinding. . . . Reads like a cross
between an Indiana Jones adventure and a Gabriel Garcia Marquez
novel. . . . Gripping."
-The Ottawa Citizen
"Irresistible. . . . At once a biography of Fawcett, a history of
the era of exploration, a science book on the nature and
ethnography of the Amazon and a thrilling armchair adventure. . . .
[It] has everything to fire the imagination: Romance, nostalgia,
bravery, monomania, hardship, adventure, science, tragedy,
mystery."
-South Florida Sun Sentinel
"The Lost City of Z is meticulously researched, riveting and
horrifying, guided by a core mystery that seems unimaginable and an
author driven into the depths of the jungle by his daring to
imagine it."
-Philadelphia City Paper
"Absorbing. . . . A wonderful story of a lost age of heroic
exploration."
-The Sunday Times (London)
"Tantalizing. . . . Grann gives us a glimpse of the vanished age of
exploration [as well as] a suspenseful, often very funny account of
his own trek as a complete amateur into the 'green hell' of the
Amazon. . . . Immensely entertaining."
-The Gazette (Montreal)
"Thankfully, for those of us who secretly live and breath for the
swashbuckling adventure tale, every now and then a book comes along
that renews our faith in the epic quest narrative, its ability to
inform and enlighten even as it feeds our most primal need for
dramatic amusement. [The Lost City of Z] succeeds tremendously in
these pursuits."
-The Globe and Mail
(Canada)
Ask a Question About this Product More... |