We have changed our privacy policy. In addition, we use cookies on our website for various purposes. By continuing on our website, you consent to our use of cookies. You can learn about our practices by reading our privacy policy.

The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon Chapter 3 Summary

How It All Goes Down

The Search Begins

  • This chapter reads like David Grann's OkCupid profile.
  • Five foot nine. Forty years old. Terrible sense of direction. Doesn't like to camp. Takes the elevator instead of the stairs.
  • Swipe right, Shmoopers.
  • While researching a story related to Arthur Conan Doyle, Grann stumbles across a reference to Col. Fawcett, who inspired Doyle's The Lost World. (Not the lame Jurassic Park sequel.)
  • Grann learns that Fawcett disappeared—and that many explorers are still obsessed with finding him.
  • Grann becomes one of the obsessed, and he plans to go into the Amazon.
  • Specifically, Grann will need to go into the Xingu region, where Fawcett was last seen, and where James Lynch, from Chapter 2, was kidnapped.
  • Grann promises his wife to prepare himself first. He sets off for England to investigate.
  • If you can survive on English food for a week, you can survive anything.