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The Wager

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The Wager

By: David Grann, David Grann - introduction
Narrated by: Dion Graham
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About this listen

 THE SUNDAY TIMES NUMBER ONE BESTSELLER

*LONGLISTED FOR THE 2023 BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION*

'The beauty of The Wager unfurls like a great sail... one of the finest nonfiction books I’ve ever read' Guardian

‘The greatest sea story ever told’ Spectator

'I cannot think of anyone who would not love this book . . . It is an extraordinary true story, beautifully written' Richard Osman

‘A cracking yarn… Grann’s taste for desperate predicaments finds its fullest expression here’ Observer

From the international bestselling 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 martial that 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 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 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-death—for whomever the court found guilty could hang.
 Armed Forces Engineering Military Naval Forces Latin American Suspenseful War England

Critic reviews

'The beauty of The Wager unfurls like a great sail... one of the finest nonfiction books I’ve ever read. I can only offer the highest praise a writer can give: endless envy, as deep and salty as the sea' (Matthew Teague)
'Grann combines a forensic eye with a storyteller's enthusiasm... [he] skilfully moves between several genres – giving us a tense court-martial drama to finish an unrelenting survival thriller'
‘Vivid, immediate and tantalising… Grann has a knack not just for telling a great story, but for bringing it to life through its characters… There are a great many books on British naval history; very few are this good’
'This astonishing tale of maritime warfare, mutiny and survival in the 18th-century Atlantic proves that a nonfiction book can be as thrilling as any summer blockbuster'
‘Combining impeccable research with exceptional storytelling powers, [Grann] spirits the reader aboard a creaking wooden ship trapped at the eye of a howling storm… No book that you are likely to read this year or next will prove more dramatic and enthralling than Grann’s magnificent story of both life at sea and out on the desolate, mist-laden island whose solitary peak the Wager’s unfortunate crew aptly named Mount Misery’

(Miranda Seymour)
'The story of The Wager is, like many of its antecedents - from Homer's Odyssey to Mutiny on the Bounty - a testement to the depths of human depravity and the heights of human endurance, and you can't ask for better than that from a story... The Wager will keep you in its grip to its head-stratching, improbable end'
'Those who love yarns involving cannon fire, sea-chests, plum duff and mainmasts will find The Wager riveting, as will those less intrigued by the age of sail. In the hands of David Grann, the story transcends its naval setting... [Grann] is a master of exciting tales in far-flung places. He has produced a volume so dramatic and engrossing that it may surpass his previous books'
'... one of the premier nonfiction storytellers of our time... Grann's masterful new book The Wager is at once an adventure on the high seas, a horror story and a courtroom drama - a little bit Rashomon meets Lord of the Flies'
‘A tour de force of narrative nonfiction, Mr. Grann’s account shows how storytelling, whether to judges or readers, can shape individual and national fortunes—as well as our collective memory... The Wager is likely to cast a powerful spell on modern readers as well’
'It's the kind of inspiring chronicle that would make for a rousing maritime adventure. But this is a David Grann book, and so he gives us something more... Their struggle for survival consumed them; reading about their struggle for survival intruged me - as Grann, the consummate narrative architect, must have known it would'
All stars
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This is a great book with shockingly poor American narration, even though it's about a British ship, If you are happy with LOOtenants, everyone having a lazy drawl, an American lecturing you about British class structure and long unusual pauses, go for it. I had to return it, found it unbearable to listen to, even though obviously it's well-written and very interesting. And in fact the narrator is probably a great actor with American material too, but this is a completely terrible match and I'm amazed they let it happen.

If you're British, tread very carefully.

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Having written (95%) of the Wikipedia page on the Wager Mutiny I have extensively read and researched this topic. This narrative is good and has some interesting perspectives, but it misses out a good 50% of what happened and is, to me, important. I consider this to be an abridged narrative. If you’re interested in this story, refer to the bibliography which is in the Wikipedia article. Patrick O’Brian’s fictionalised version ‘The Unknown Shore’ is also a must.

An abridged version of an amazing story

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This gripping story was ill served by the choice of an American voice narrating it. It is the story of English sailors facing unimaginable scenarios, and an English voice would have been the perfect choice.
I could hardly stop listening, however, and found it pretty overwhelming.

“Worse things happen at sea”.

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Narrator of as off putting. Having an American accent for this British tale was incongruous.

Disappointing narration

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A great story with the characters involved well delineated. My only mild quibble would be that an English narrator would have been more apt (and would certainly have pronounced Byron’s Don Juan correctly).

Absorbing Saga - almost beyond Belief

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