Douglas Preston, author of “The Lost City of the Monkey God” in conversation with Richard Wolinsky.
Douglas Preston has written several works of fiction and non-fiction, including a best-selling series of thrillers co-written with Lincoln Child (the Agent Pendergast series). In his latest work of non-fiction, Preston delves into the story of a lost city in Honduras, in Mosquitia, and a civilization that vanished after the Spanish came to the Americas.
His story involves con men and crooks who spent decades looking for the city, then turns to a documentarian who became obsessed and eventually took state of the art equipment to discover whether such a city exists. In fact, he found two, and Douglas Preston was there. Still later, in 2015, Preston went on an expedition into the jungle to see what remains of the ruins, and while there contracted a rare and often fatal tropical disease which is currently in remission.
This extended interview also contains an overview of Preston’s writing career, including a look at the process in which he and Lincoln Child create the Pendergast books. A shorter version airs on Bookwaves on KPFA.
I’m so glad I’m a ranch hand and not a writer. No one works as hard as Doug does.
Why do you report that the expedition “in fact” found two “lost cities” when it’s far from clear that it found even one. What is the evidence for a city?
Guess you’ll have to read the book and decide for yourself.