David Grann

David Grann is an American journalist and a staff writer at The New Yorker, where he has worked since 2003. Before joining the magazine, he held editorial roles at The New Republic and The Hill. His books grow from long investigations, archival research and reporting in the places where their histories unfolded.

Grann writes narrative nonfiction with the momentum of a mystery. He is drawn to vanished explorers, disputed evidence, crimes obscured by institutions and people tested by extreme conditions. The Lost City of Z follows British explorer Percy Fawcett’s 1925 disappearance while searching for an ancient Amazonian civilization. The Wager reconstructs an eighteenth-century shipwreck whose survivors returned with fiercely conflicting accounts of mutiny, murder and command.

His other major work, Killers of the Flower Moon, investigates the murders of Osage people in oil-rich Oklahoma and the failures surrounding the case. It was a 2017 National Book Award finalist, won an Edgar Award and became a film directed by Martin Scorsese. The Lost City of Z was also adapted for the screen, by director James Gray. Grann’s magazine reporting has received honors including a George Polk Award.

Start with The Lost City of Z. Its blend of biography, historical puzzle and first-hand pursuit offers the clearest introduction to Grann’s method: he follows an obsession into the archives, then out into difficult terrain. Choose The Wager first if shipboard life, survival and battles over who controls history hold greater appeal.