The Wager

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From the internationalbestselling author of KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON and THE LOST CITY OF Z, a mesmerising story of shipwreck, mutiny and murder, culminating in a court martialthat reveals a shocking truth.

On 28th January 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 Majestys ship The Wager, a British vessel that had left England in 1740 on a secret mission during an imperial war with Spain.While chasing a Spanish treasure-filled galleon, The Wager was wrecked on a desolate island off the coast of Patagonia. The crew, marooned for months and facing starvation, built the flimsy craft and sailed for more than a hundred days, traversing 2,500 miles of storm-wracked seas. They were greeted as heroes.

Then, six months later, another, even more decrepit, craft landed on the coast of Chile. This boat contained just three castaways and they had a very different story to tell.The thirty sailors who landed in Brazil were not heroes they were mutineers. The first group responded with counter-charges of their own, of a tyrannical and murderous captain and his henchmen. 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-deathfor whomever the court found guilty could hang.

Reviews

A tour de force of narrative nonfiction, Mr. Granns account shows how storytelling, whether to judges or readers, can shape individual and national fortunesas well as our collective memory... The Wager is likely to cast a powerful spell on modern readers as well * Wall Street Journal *
'Bestseller Grann (Killers of the Flower Moon) delivers a concise and riveting account of the HMSWager Grann packs the narrative with fascinating details about life at seafrom scurvy-induced delirium to the mechanics of loading and firing a cannonand 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.' * Publishers Weekly *

Author Bio

David Grann is a staff writer at The New Yorker. He has written about everything from New York City's antiquated water tunnels to the hunt for the giant squid. His stories have appeared in several anthologies. He has written for the New York Times Magazine, the Atlantic Monthly, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal and the New Republic. He lives in New York with his wife and two children.