The Lost City of the Monkey God: A True Story
Douglas Preston, 2017
Grand Central Publishing
336 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781455540013
Summary
A five-hundred-year-old legend. An ancient curse. A stunning medical mystery. And a pioneering journey into the unknown heart of the world's densest jungle.
Since the days of conquistador Hernán Cortés, rumors have circulated about a lost city of immense wealth hidden somewhere in the Honduran interior, called the White City or the Lost City of the Monkey God.
Indigenous tribes speak of ancestors who fled there to escape the Spanish invaders, and they warn that anyone who enters this sacred city will fall ill and die.
In 1940, swashbuckling journalist Theodore Morde returned from the rainforest with hundreds of artifacts and an electrifying story of having found the Lost City of the Monkey God-but then committed suicide without revealing its location.
Three quarters of a century later, bestselling author Doug Preston joined a team of scientists on a groundbreaking new quest.
In 2012 he climbed aboard a rickety, single-engine plane carrying the machine that would change everything: lidar, a highly advanced, classified technology that could map the terrain under the densest rainforest canopy. In an unexplored valley ringed by steep mountains, that flight revealed the unmistakable image of a sprawling metropolis, tantalizing evidence of not just an undiscovered city but an enigmatic, lost civilization.
Venturing into this raw, treacherous, but breathtakingly beautiful wilderness to confirm the discovery, Preston and the team battled torrential rains, quickmud, disease-carrying insects, jaguars, and deadly snakes.
But it wasn't until they returned that tragedy struck: Preston and others found they had contracted in the ruins a horrifying, sometimes lethal-and incurable-disease.
Suspenseful and shocking, filled with colorful history, hair-raising adventure, and dramatic twists of fortune, The Lost City of the Monkey God is the absolutely true, eyewitness account of one of the great discoveries of the 21st Century. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—May 31, 1956
• Raised—Wellesley, Massachusetts, USA
• Education—B.A., Pomona College
• Currently—lives in Maine
Douglas Jerome Preston is an American journalist and author. Although he is best known for his thrillers in collaboration with Lincoln Child (including the Agent Pendergast series and Gideon Crew series), he has also written six solo novels, including the Wyman Ford series and a novel entitled Jennie, which was made into a movie by Disney. He has authored a half-dozen non-fiction books on science and exploration and writes occasionally for The New Yorker, Smithsonian, and other magazines.
Life and career
Preston was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts and grew up in Wellesley, Massachusetts. A graduate of Pomona College in Claremont, California, Preston began his writing career at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.
From 1978 to 1985, Preston worked for the American Museum of Natural History as a writer, editor, and manager of publications. He served as managing editor for the journal Curator and was a columnist for Natural History magazine. In 1985 he published a history of the museum, Dinosaurs In The Attic: An Excursion into the American Museum of Natural History, which chronicled the explorers and expeditions of the museum's early days. The editor of that book at St. Martin's Press was his future writing partner, Lincoln Child. They soon collaborated on a thriller set in the museum titled Relic. It was subsequently made into a motion picture by Paramount Pictures starring Penelope Ann Miller, Tom Sizemore, and Linda Hunt.
In 1986, Preston moved to New Mexico and began to write full-time. Seeking an understanding of the first moment of contact between Europeans and Native Americans in America, he retraced on horseback Francisco Vasquez de Coronado's violent and unsuccessful search for the legendary Seven Cities of Gold. That thousand mile journey across the American Southwest resulted in the book Cities of Gold: A Journey Across the American Southwest.
Since then, Preston has undertaken many long horseback journeys retracing historic or prehistoric trails, for which he was inducted into the Long Riders' Guild. He has also participated in expeditions in other parts of the world, including a journey deep into Khmer Rouge-held territory in the Cambodian jungle with a small army of soldiers, to become the first Westerner to visit a lost Angkor temple.
He was the first person in 3,000 years to enter an ancient Egyptian burial chamber in a tomb known as KV5 in the Valley of the Kings. Preston participated in an expedition that led to the discovery of an ancient city in an unexplored valley in the Mosquitia mountains of Eastern Honduras, which he chronicled in a nonfiction book, The Lost City of the Monkey God: A True Story. On that expedition he and other expedition members contracted an incurable tropical disease known as mucocutaneous leishmaniasis, for which he received treatment at the National Institutes of Health.
In 1989 and 1990 he taught nonfiction writing at Princeton University. Currently, he's an active member of the Authors Guild, as well as the International Thriller Writers organization.
Writing
With his frequent collaborator Lincoln Child, he created the character of FBI Special Agent Pendergast, who appears in many of their novels, including Relic, The Cabinet of Curiosities, Brimstone, and White Fire. Additional novels by the Preston and Child team include Mount Dragon, Riptide, Thunderhead, and The Ice Limit. Later, the duo created the Gideon Crew series, which consists of Gideon's Sword, Gideon's Corpse, and The Lost Island.
For his solo career, Preston's fictional debut was Jennie, a novel about a chimpanzee who is adopted by an American family. His next novel was The Codex, a treasure hunt novel with a style that was much closer to the thriller genre of his collaborations with Child. The Codex introduced the characters of Tom Broadbent and Sally Colorado. Tom and Sally return in Tyrannosaur Canyon, which also features the debut of Wyman Ford, an ex-CIA agent and (at the time) a monk-in-training. Following Tyrannosaur Canyon, Ford leaves the monastery where he is training, forms his own private investigation company, and replaces Broadbent as the main protagonist of Preston's solo works. Ford subsequently returns in Blasphemy, Impact, and The Kraken Project.
In addition to his collaborations with Child and his solo fictional universe, Preston has written several non-fiction books of his own, mainly dealing with the history of the American Southwest. He has written about archaeology and paleontology for The New Yorker and has also been published in Smithsonian, Harper's, Atlantic, Natural History, and National Geographic.
In May, 2011, Pomona College conferred on Preston the degree of Doctor of Letters (Honoris Causa). He is the recipient of writing awards in the United States and Europe.
Monster of Florence
In 2000, Preston moved to Florence, Italy with his young family and became fascinated with an unsolved local murder mystery involving a serial killer nicknamed the "Monster of Florence." The case and his problems with the Italian authorities are the subject of his 2008 book The Monster of Florence, co-authored with Italian journalist Mario Spezi. The book spent three months on the New York Times bestseller list. It is being developed into a movie by 20th Century Fox, produced by George Clooney, who will also play the role of Preston.
The Amanda Knox case
Preston has criticized the conduct of Italian prosecutor Giuliano Mignini in the trial of American student Amanda Knox, one of three convicted, and eventually cleared, of the murder of British student Meredith Kercher in Perugia in 2007. In 2009, Preston argued on CBS's 48 Hours that the case against Knox was "based on lies, superstition, and crazy conspiracy theories." In December 2009, after the verdict had been announced, he described his own interrogation by Mignini on CNN's Anderson Cooper 360°. Preston said of Mignini, "this is a very abusive prosecutor. He makes up theories. He's ... obsessed with satanic sex."
Operation Thriller USO Tour
In 2010, Preston participated in the first USO tour sponsored by the International Thriller Writers organization, along with authors David Morrell, Steve Berry, Andy Harp, and James Rollins. After visiting with wounded warriors and giving away books at National Navy Medical Center and Walter Reed Army Medical Center, the group spent over a week in Kuwait and Iraq, marking "the first time in the USO’s 69-year history that authors visited a combat zone." Of the experience, Preston said, "As always, we learn a great deal from all of the amazing and dedicated people we meet."
Authors United
In 2014, during a disagreement over terms between publisher Hachette Book Group and Amazon, Preston initiated an effort which became known as Authors United. During the contract dispute, books by Hachette authors faced significant shipment delays, blocked availability, and reduced discounts on the Amazon website.
Frustrated with tactics he felt unjustly injured authors who were caught in the middle, Preston garnered support from authors from a variety of publishers. In the first open letter from Authors United, over 900 signatories urged Amazon to resolve the dispute and end the policy of sanctions, while calling on readers to contact CEO Jeff Bezos to express their support of authors. Not long after, a second open letter, signed by over 1100 authors, was sent to Amazon's board of directors asking if they personally approved the policy of hindering the sale of certain books.
Describing the motivation behind the campaign, Preston explained:
This is about Amazon’s bullying tactics against authors. Every time they run into difficulty negotiating with a publisher, they target authors’ books for selective retaliation. The authors who were first were from university presses and small presses.…Amazon is going to be negotiating with publishers forever. Are they really going to target authors every time they run into a problem with a publisher?
The Lost City of the Monkey God expedition
In 2015, Preston took part in an expedition into the Mosquitia mountains of Honduras that penetrated one of the last scientifically unexplored areas on the surface of the earth. The expedition, led by Steve Elkins and sponsored by Benenson Productions, the Honduran government, and National Geographic magazine, explored a previously unknown pre-Columbian city built by a mysterious civilization that had been influenced by the Maya, but was not Maya itself.
The city was discovered in an area long rumored to contain a legendary "lost city" known as La Ciudad Blanca, the White City, or the Lost City of the Monkey God. The extensive archaeological site, in a remote valley ringed by mountains, had been discovered in 2012 in an aerial overflight by a team using the powerful technology of lidar (Light Detection and Ranging), able to map the terrain under dense, triple-canopy jungle.
The 2015 expedition explored and mapped the city’s plazas, pyramids, and temples. It also discovered a cache of stone sculptures at the base of the city’s central earthen pyramid. When excavated in 2016 and 2017, the cache revealed over 500 sacred objects which appeared to have been ceremonially broken and left as an offering at the time the city was abandoned.
Preston wrote about that discovery in his 2017 nonfiction book, The Lost City of the Monkey God: A True Story, which became a #1 New York Times bestseller.[34] Preston was one of many on the expedition who contracted an incurable tropical disease, called mucocutaneous leishmaniasis, in the lost city. (From Wikipedia. Retrieved 10/8/2018.)
Book Reviews
Preston builds a compelling case for the scientific significance of what the expedition unearthed.… The year may still be young, but I would wager a small fortune that Douglas Preston has already written the best snake-decapitation scene of 2017.… The book's most affecting moments [center] on the otherworldly nature of the jungle itself.… Memoirs of jungle adventures too often devolve into lurid catalogs of hardships [but] Preston proves too thoughtful an observer and too skilled a storyteller to settle for churning out danger porn. He has instead created something nuanced and sublime: a warm and geeky paean to the revelatory power of archaeology.… Few other writers possess such heartfelt appreciation for the ways in which artifacts can yield the stories of who we are.
Brendon Koerner - New York Times Book Review
Breezy, colloquial and sometimes very funny.… A very entertaining book.
Wall Street Journal
Deadly snakes, flesh-eating parasites, and some of the most forbidding jungle terrain on earth were not enough to deter Douglas Preston from a great story.
Boston Globe
A swift and often hair-raising account.… Preston pushes The Lost City of the Monkey God well beyond the standard adventure narrative.
Chicago Tribune
A well-documented and engaging read.… The author's narrative is rife with jungle derring-do and the myriad dangers of the chase.
USA Today
This nonfiction thriller about plunging into the interior of the Honduran jungle is actually true and a perfect read for armchair travelers or would-be adventurers who bemoan the fact that there's nothing left to discover...Douglas Preston's true-life tale includes everything from the latest technology to ancient curses to scientific backbiting and a mysterious illness that came out of the jungle and is headed your way.
Huffington Post
The Lost City of the Monkey God is a superior example of narrative nonfiction, an exciting, immersive tale of modern science and ancient mythology. Preston captures the complexity of his subject without bogging down in the details, presenting scenes with clarity, purposefulness and wit. It's a great story for a snowy day, an action-packed journey into a hot zone of scientific intrigue.
Portland Press Herald
(Starred review) Irresistibly gripping… [and] reads like a fairy tale minus the myth.… Preston explains the legendary abandonment of the [city]… and provides scientific reasoning behind its reputation as life-threatening.
Publishers Weekly
(Starred review) This modern-day archeological adventure and medical mystery reads as rapidly as a well-paced novel, but is a heart-pounding true story.
Shelf Awareness
Replete with informative archaeology lessons and colorful anecdotes about the… expedition, including torrential rains and encounters with deadly snakes, Preston's uncommon travelogue is as captivating as any of his more fanciful fictional thrillers.
Booklist
(Starred review) [A]nother perilous Preston prestidigitation.… A story that moves from thrilling to sobering, fascinating to downright scary—trademark Preston, in other words, and another winner.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. The legend of the Ciudad Blanca has been around for more than five centuries, and in that time, generations of adventurers have risked their lives in search of it. What do you think the appeal is of this kind of quest? What is it about the idea of discovering a lost city that maintains such a perennial grip on the human imagination?
2. Preston offers a colorful history of the men who had tried to find the Ciudad Blanca over the centuries—many of whom came back with vivid accounts of their discoveries. Do you believe that any of them came across the same city that Preston and Elkins and the expedition found in T1, and if so, who?
3. In 1940, The New York Times ran a front-page article announcing that "City of Monkey God Is Believed Located" by swashbuckling explorer Theodore Morde. However, Preston’s research reveals a shocking new twist to this seventy-five-year-old story. How does this new information change our understanding of the history of the legend of the lost city? Why do you think Morde’s original account remained unchallenged so long?
4. Do you think the team underestimated the challenges that they would face, by themselves in the jungle? Why or why not? If offered the opportunity to go on a similar adventure, would you want go yourself?
5. After Elkins, Preston, and the team emerge from the jungle and announce their findings, a conflict breaks out in the archeological community. What is the source of the disagreement, and do you think either side is correct?
6. What can the discovery of the city at T1 teach modern-day archeologists about the past? What are the biggest surprises that surround this discovery? Does it change the way we understand any of the history of the New World?
7. Do you believe in the curse of the Lost City of the Monkey God? Why or why not?
(Questions issued by the publisher.)
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