Meet Me in Atlantis: My Obsessive Quest to Find the Sunken City

Adams (Turn Right at Machu Picchu) joins the ever-popular field of “Atlantology,” exploring the evidence and the diverse cast of characters in his chronicle of the hunt for the lost city of Atlantis. He begins with a layman’s guide to the origin material, Plato’s notoriously difficult Timaeus and Critias, before laying out his plan to visit the four most likely locations: remote islands in Greece, Spain, Malta, and Morocco. Additionally, his investigation takes detours to Minnesota, to visit the library of an especially eccentric Atlantologist, Ignatius Donnelly; Massachusetts to learn about satellite archaeology; and Athens, where a renowned geophysicist discusses the ultimate conundrum: did the island even exist, or did Plato intend it as an allegory? This is an exhaustive account and the material is dry at points, but Adams’s informal prose acts as a remedy, transforming an academic topic into a work of travelogue, investigative journalism, and serious philosophical examination. Agent: Daniel Greenberg, Levine Greenberg Rostan Literary Agency. (Mar.)