Lost City of Z [Lingua Inglese]: A Legendary British Explorer's Deadly Quest to Uncover the Secrets of the Amazon - Rilegato

Grann, David

Rilegato

ISBN 10: 1847374360 ISBN 13: 9781847374363

Casa editrice: Simon & Schuster Ltd, 2009

Riassunto

Colonel Percy Harrison Fawcett was the last of a breed of great British explorers who ventured into 'blank spots' on the map with little more than a machete, a compass and unwavering sense of purpose. In 1925, one of the few remaining blank spots in the world was in the Amazon. Fawcett believed the impenetrable jungle held a secret to a large, complex civilization like El Dorado, which he christened the 'City of Z'. When he and his son set out to find it, hoping to make one of the most important archeological discoveries in history, they warned that none should follow them in the event that they did not return. They vanished without a trace. For the next eighty years, hordes of explorers -- shocked that a man many deemed invincible could disappear in a land he knew better than anyone, and drawn by the centuries-old myth of El Dorado -- searched for the expedition and the city. Many died from starvation, disease, attacks by wild animals, and poisonous arrows. Others simply vanished. In The Lost City of Z, David Grann ventures into the hazardous wild world of the Amazon to retrace the footsteps of the great Colonel Fawcett and his followers, in a bracing attempt to solve one of the greatest mysteries. It is an irresistibly readable adventure story, a subtle examination of the strange and often violent encounters between Europeans and Amazonian tribes and a tale of lethal obsession.

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Recensione:

'A fantastic story of courage, obsession, an mystery. THE LOST CITY OF Z is gripping from beginning to end. In the pantheon of classic exploration tale, this stands out as one of the best' Candice Millard, author of River of Doubt
'What a wild and adventurous life! In the deft storytelling hands of David Grann, explorer Percy Fawcett emerges as one of the most ambitious, colorful, just plain intrepid figures ever to set foot in the New World' Hampton Sides, author of Ghost Soldiers
'[an] outstanding book...terrifically exciting' Scotsman 12/03
'In Fawcett's swashbuckling Boy's Own tradition' Saga Magazine March issue
'David Grann's book is the latest of many attempts to discover what happened to him (it is thought that a hundred people have died in the course of these attempts). But what makes it so different from the others is that it appears at a time when the world has forgotten Fawcett. ...And this is what makes David Grann's book so interesting. Everything in it does ring true. No nonsense about 60-foot anacondas ('the longest officially recorded one is 27 feet nine inches')... And no nonsense about lost cities, except that Grann has a surprise in store for the reader in his very last chapter...But the most fascinating part of his book is when he writes about recent archaeological discoveries' The Spectator 26/3
'The Boy's Own adventure story of the year has already arrived. New Yorker journalist David Grann's book - subtitled "A Legendary British Explorer's Deadly Quest to Uncover the Secrets of the Amazon" - traces the doomed attempts to find a mythical (possibly) early civilisation in the depths of the Amazon jungle. Its hero is Colonel Percy Harrison Fawcett, last of the great, mad British explorers and inspiration for his friend Conan Doyle's classic The Lost World. In 1925, Col Fawcett set off amid great pomp and publicity with his son and his son's best friend, to discover this lost city, which he christened Z. They never returned. Subsequent attempts to learn what happened to the Fawcett expedition also ended in death and disappearance. Now Grann, an extremely unlikely adventurer, sets out on his own obsessive mission, to disinter Fawcett's story and also, perhaps, to find Z himself. It's a cracking book, brave and funny, full of snakes and spears and spies, outlandish diseases, hype and heroics. No wonder Brad Pitt has optioned the movie rights' GQ.com 31/03

L'autore:

David Grann is a staff writer at The New Yorker. He has written about everything from New York City's antiquated water tunnels to the hunt for the giant squid. His stories have appeared in several anthologies. He has written for the New York Times Magazine, the Atlantic Monthly, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal and the New Republic. He lives in New York with his wife and two children.

Su questa edizione

• Editore: Simon & Schuster Ltd
• Data di pubblicazione: 2009
• ISBN 10: 1847374360
• ISBN 13: 9781847374363
• Rilegatura: Copertina rigida
• Numero di pagine: 352