The Lost City of Z (audiobook)

“A riveting, exciting, and thoroughly compelling tale of adventure.”

“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.”

“A riveting adventure-mystery in the tradition of Conan Doyle’s The Lost World, said to be inspired by Fawcett.”

“Thankfully, for those of us who secretly live and breathe 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.”

“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.”

“A fascinating yarn that touches on science, history, and some truly obsessive personalities.”

“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.”

“Absorbing…A wonderful story of a lost age of heroic exploration.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“A blood-stirring reading experience.”

“A spellbinding tale that produces fresh surprises around each turn…An amazing story.”

“Fast-paced adventure…Grann delights us with the lure of obsession under a canopy of trees.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.)”

“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.”

“A blockbuster tale of adventure.”

“Grann escapes death and tracks down Z, giving the reader the kind of Indiana Jones kicks best experienced vicariously.”

“A colorful tale of true adventure, marked by satisfyingly unexpected twists, turns, and plenty of dark portents.”