The Lost City of Z (book) - Reception

Reception

Published in February 2009, The Lost City of Z was reviewed in the Sunday New York Times Book Review by Rich Cohen, who called it "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." The New York Times critic Michiko Kakutani named it one of the ten best books of 2009. In her review of the book, Kakutani wrote that it "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. . . . Suspenseful. . . Rollicking . . . Fascinating . . . It reads with all the pace and excitement of a movie thriller and all the verisimilitude and detail of firsthand reportage.” The Washington Post called it "a thrill ride from start to finish." It was also reviewed by author Simon Winchester in The Wall Street Journal, who called the book "captivating." The book was named to countless best and notable books of the year lists, including Entertainment Weekly, Washington Post, Boston Globe, Publisher's Weekly, Sunday New York Times, Christian Science Monitor, Bloomberg, Providence Journal, Globe and Mail, Evening Standard, Amazon, and McClatchy Newspapers. Barnes and Noble named The Lost City of Z the single best nonfiction book of 2009.