I really wanted to like this book and, after the first few chapters, was really getting into it. The book turned out to be primarily about the wanderings of Col. Fawcett in the Amazon, and very little about the lost city. There are a few debates about whether or not the Amazon can support large populations, but that's about it. At the end the author invests a few pages in what "could" have been the lost city, and then....that's it. Book over. I didn't even get much of a sense that Fawcett really conceived the idea of a lost city and then developed an "obsession" to find it.

I bought the book after listening to Mr. Grann do a talk show. I feel I must have bought the wrong book.

There were no maps, except for inside the covers. There was a lack of detail in many areas, such as, if the expedition is well into Amazonia, and are totally spent and half-dead from starvation and disease, how did they get out in order that they undertake the next expedition? Just way too many loose ends for me. Sadly, this is a case where the movie should have no trouble being better than the book.

There is one silver lining I found in this book. After reading the exceptional descriptions of all the things that can kill you in the Amazon basin, I will NEVER visit a place that has an indigenous creature like the candiru.