The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder

Name: The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder
Brand: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
SKU: 9780593688809-V
Price: 11.49 EUR
Availability: OutOfStock
Rating: 5 (1 reviews)

By David Grann

Only 1 item left in stock

Description

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the author of Killers of the Flower Moon, a page-turning story of shipwreck, survival, and savagery, culminating in a court martial that reveals a shocking truth. The powerful narrative reveals the deeper meaning of the events on The Wager, showing that it was not only the captain and crew who ended up on trial, but the very idea of empire. 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.

Product details

Binding:

Paperback

Edition:

1

Number of Pages:

352

Release Date:

2024-04-09

Publication Date:

2024-04-09

Publisher:

Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group

Languages:

Published: English, Original: English

ISBN10:

0593688805

GPSR Manufacturer Reference:

[email protected]

Weight:

283 g

Height:

20.4 cm

Width:

13 cm

Thickness:

2 cm

Buy on Amazon

Condition

Show less

Very good

Almost no signs of wear. Book pages have no markings, accessories are intact and all other media are in good condition.

Used - very good €11,77

Used - good €11,74

Available immediately

€11,77

Incl. VAT, plus shipping costs

Only 1 item left in stock

Verified second-hand article

Verified second-hand item

Free shipping from 19€

€11,77