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A Best Book of the Year: The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The New Yorker, TIME, Smithsonian, NPR, Vulture, Kirkus Reviews
“Riveting...Reads like a thriller, tackling a multilayered history—and imperialism—with gusto.” —Time
"A tour de force of narrative nonfiction.” —The Wall Street Journal
On January 28, 1742, a ramshackle vessel of patched-together wood and cloth washed up on the coast of Brazil. Inside were thirty emaciated men, barely alive, and they had an extraordinary tale to tell. They were survivors of His Majesty’s Ship the Wager, a British vessel that had left England in 1740 on a secret mission during an imperial war with Spain. While the Wager had been chasing a Spanish treasure-filled galleon known as “the prize of all the oceans,” it had wrecked on a desolate island off the coast of Patagonia. The men, after being marooned for months and facing starvation, built the flimsy craft and sailed for more than a hundred days, traversing nearly 3,000 miles of storm-wracked seas. They were greeted as heroes.
But then ... six months later, another, even more decrepit craft landed on the coast of Chile. This boat contained just three castaways, and they told a very different story. The thirty sailors who landed in Brazil were not heroes – they were mutineers. The first group responded with countercharges of their own, of a tyrannical and murderous senior officer and his henchmen. It became clear that while stranded on the island the crew had fallen into anarchy, with warring factions fighting for dominion over the barren wilderness. As accusations of treachery and murder flew, the Admiralty convened a court martial to determine who was telling the truth. The stakes were life-and-death—for whomever the court found guilty could hang.
The Wager is a grand tale of human behavior at the extremes told by one of our greatest nonfiction writers. Grann’s recreation of the hidden world on a British warship rivals the work of Patrick O’Brian, his portrayal of the castaways’ desperate straits stands up to the classics of survival writing such as The Endurance, and his account of the court martial has the savvy of a Scott Turow thriller. As always with Grann’s work, the incredible twists of the narrative hold the reader spellbound.
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Creators
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Awards
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Release date
April 18, 2023 -
Formats
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OverDrive Listen audiobook
- ISBN: 9780307747518
- File size: 244159 KB
- Duration: 08:28:39
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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March 20, 2023
Bestseller Grann (Killers of the Flower Moon) delivers a concise and riveting account of the HMS Wager, a British man-of-war that ran aground on a barren island off the Chilean coast of Patagonia in 1741. Part of a squadron sent to capture a treasure-laden Spanish galleon during the War of Jenkins’ Ear, the Wager became separated from the other ships while rounding Cape Horn and wrecked several weeks later. The starving crew soon disintegrated into rival factions, including one led by gunner John Bulkeley, who became increasingly critical of Capt. David Cheap. Five months after they’d been marooned, Bulkeley and 80 other crew members commandeered the Wager’s longboat and two other small vessels and set sail for Brazil, abandoning Cheap and his few remaining loyalists to their fate. Fewer than half of Bulkeley’s group survived their nearly 3,000-mile journey through the Strait of Magellan and up the coast of Argentina, but he was treated as a hero, until Cheap miraculously appeared back in England and accused him of mutiny. Though the showdown between Cheap and Bulkeley is somewhat anticlimactic, Grann packs the narrative with fascinating details about life at sea—from scurvy-induced delirium to the mechanics of loading and firing a cannon—and makes excellent use of primary sources, including a firsthand account by 16-year-old midshipman John Byron, grandfather of the poet Lord Byron. Armchair adventurers will be enthralled. -
Starred review from June 10, 2024
In 1741, en route to attack a Spanish galleon during the War of Jenkins' Ear, the Royal Navy warship HMS Wager encountered treacherous weather with tumultuous seas. The Wager drifted from the squadron and ran aground off the southwest Chilean coast, leaving the sailors castaway on what is now known as Wager Island. With the ship in tatters, some crewmen rebelled and formed alliances, leading to contentious confrontations. Enduring all manner of improbable survival conditions, some sailors lived and returned to England years later to cheers (or accusations), depending on whose story one believed. New Yorker staff writer Grann (Killers of the Flower Moon) crafted this well-researched project into an engaging listen for all audiences. The timeline is expertly delineated and easy to follow, with dates frequently provided. Robustly and huskily narrated by Dion Graham, who masterfully captures the intensity of this swashbuckling adventure. VERDICT All the trimmings of an admirable shipwreck story are present, including scurvy, mutiny, controversy, and foul weather. Combined with Graham's hardy narration, Grann's latest is a riveting must-listen. Expect broad listener appeal and high demand for this enthralling seafaring tale.--Kym Goering
Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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