The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder
Ratings277
Average rating4.1
An astounding book which was made more engaging and exciting by the outstanding audiobook narrator. This non-fictional historical tale is written like the best adventure novel imaginable. The author begins by noting that not one, but two different groups of castaways made it back to England after being shipwrecked in South America. This point sets the stage for how the facts are now able to be told-from the journals of the surving seamen. A great adventure and the telling is vivid and exciting. Hard to belief that the main figures were able to survive ridiculous levels of hardship and therefore able to return safely home so their tales could be told. Highly recommended!
The best book I've read this year, and probably the best story ever. Period.
The Wager by David Grann is a captivating work of narrative non-fiction that delves into the audacious tale of an eccentric British explorer's journey into the Amazon rainforest in the 1930s. Grann's meticulous research and vivid storytelling breathe life into this nearly forgotten historical episode.
The book centers around Percy Fawcett, a renowned explorer obsessed with finding an ancient lost city he believed lay hidden deep within the Amazon jungle. Ridiculed by many for his unorthodox theories, Fawcett was undeterred, leading an ill-fated 1925 expedition from which he and his party never returned. Their mysterious disappearance sparked decades of speculation and rescue attempts.
Grann deftly weaves Fawcett's own detailed writings with modern investigative efforts to unravel the truth behind his vanishing. The pacing is masterful, building suspense as Fawcett's journey becomes increasingly perilous while navigating unmapped territory, hostile indigenous tribes, starvation, and disease. Grann's immersive prose transports the reader into the heart of this unforgiving wilderness.
Through his balanced examination of Fawcett as a man driven by obsession and self-mythologizing, Grann crafts a nuanced portrait without resorting to caricature. The legendary explorer emerges as an endearingly complex figure – brilliant yet stubborn, visionary yet delusional.
The only minor quibble is that the conclusion, while dramatic, leaves some unanswered questions about Fawcett's ultimate fate. But this is truth's inevitability when probing one of exploration's greatest mysteries.
A masterwork of literary non-fiction, The Wager is a gripping and expertly researched account of humanity's thirst for glory and the unknown. An utterly absorbing read.
While this is written in a much different style than I expected, I really enjoyed the journey of reading it. Stories about the human character in survival situations are almost always interesting and the author does a wonderful job of pulling all the disparate accounts together to tell one compelling narrative. Definitely worth a read!
My hubby & I listened to this over several long car trips, and it is a good one for that – much detail, draw dropping twists & turns, and good history. It is exhaustive, though. I say “though” because it felt like too much by the end. I was eager to complete it not because I was still enjoying it, but because I am a completist. I recommend it to others nonetheless.
I know that Lewis Isbell will take the piss out of me for enjoying this because it was published in the 21st century, but this is genuinely one of the best non fic books I've read. Could easily have been dry and not much fun because of its subject but it almost reads like a fiction. Absolute belter, what a book to take me to the 52 book year
One of the best nonfiction books I've ever read. At once informative, intense, accurate, gripping, and readable. Almost nothing here can be criticized.
This was my first time listening to an audio book and my opinions of this book are more shaped by that than by the book itself. I just struggled to engage with it in the audiobook format and while it was an interesting story I just didn’t quite get as into it as I would have if I’d been reading it for real. I’m not saying I’ll never try audio again, but I won’t be going straight for another one either.
I honestly can't believe most of this happened. Pretty wild. That said, it was really tough for me to get into this, and my attention drifted away constantly to The Pirates of the Caribbean... Overall I liked the story, but the writing didn't blow me away.
I don't normally read nonfiction. Most of the titles in the genre I was either forced to read or dnfed bc they were very boring. But this book is different because it is written like a thriller and keeps a fast pace—everything coming in punches, one after another.
The only thing I didn't like was how real everything got and it made me a little queasy.
Thx for reading <3
3.5 stars
I don't know. For a book with shipwrecks, castaways, scurvy, mutiny and cannibalism, I still had to force myself through this. It might have been me. I was expecting more of a page-turning thriller.
Instead, I got more of a plethora of men's egos. I DID love learning where several expressions we still use today came from, i.e. “toe the line”. It was also fun that two of the characters had famous relatives (maybe Kidd, and definitely Byron).
An incredible account from the author of Killers of a Flower Moon. I'm in awe of the work required to collate and then articulate this story almost as much as the events themselves.
The Wager is a harrowing tale of perseverance, discipline, brutality, hubris, and survival that illustrates and brings to life humanity at its extremes.
David Grann could write a book on the history of barrel making and I would find it to be the most fascinating story ever.
I really loved this book. I must confess, I listened to it on Audible, which I initially thought was a mistake: the first few chapters are slow as they detail the crew and their lives in Britain. However, once they set sail, I was gripped and finished it in a couple of days. Huge props must be given to the reader Dion Graham, who does an excellent job of bringing the book to life.
This is a tale of human survival in the most harrowing of circumstances. It is a truly fascinating story, and unlike many stories of shipwreck, mutiny and murder, this one is all the better because it is real. Mr. Grann spent many years collating the different sources, looking in archives, and even visiting Wager Island. He does a fantastic job of giving a broad account that covers all the characters and is fair in his writing.
Unlike many other books, there isn't a lot of allegory, not a lot to read into; it is just good history and plot. As such, I won't spoil it. Instead, I encourage you to pick it up and go for it.
I can't imagine going through the suffering these men endured, even worse that many of them had been pressed into service against their will.
I love reading books about sea voyages gone wrong and am always surprised that under these awful circumstances people continue on. I'm quite sure I would jump overboard at the very first hardship.
Grann's new book is quite readable! I was very lucky to find a new copy, dust-jacket and all, in a little free library. It is a more straightforward story than that of Killers of the Flower Moon, and the thesis seems a little less pointed, but a quality read nonetheless.
Much of Grann's writing goes about recounting the differing perspectives of the survivors of the Wager shipwreck. The castaways, as they struggle with lack of food, shelter, and all the other needs, gradually break into factions and nearly lose their humanity. Grann explores, somewhat lightly, how quickly the bonds of brotherhood dissolve. He does not take much time to explore the things humans will do in these perilous situations. There are only a few passing references to cannibalism, for example.
I am not sure what Grann intended his thesis to be. Is it an exploration of the trials and tribulations of the crew? The personalities involved? That's accomplished quite well. However, in the final chapter, Grann writes this:
“After M___ returned to England, he published a forty-eight-page narrative, adding to the ever-growing library of accounts about the Wager affair. The authors rarely depicted themselves or their companions as the agents of an imperialist system. They were consumed with their own daily struggles and ambitions—with working the ship, with gaining promotions and securing money for their families, and, ultimately, with survival. But it is precisely such unthinking complicity that allows empires to endure. Indeed, these imperial structures require it: thousands and thousands of ordinary people, innocent or not, serving—and even sacrificing themselves for—a system many of them rarely question.”
I struggle to find Grann's point. The narratives of the people who survived a gruesome shipwreck, mutiny, months of hunger and strife are occupied in their writing with their survival, not the political thought of Empire? Wow, no shit. I also feel that Grann is looking at these folks quite clearly removed from time and space. The officers in this setting would have an interest in propagating empire, not curtailing it. Many of the officers would go on to be active players in developing the largest empire ever to straddle the Earth. Is that “unthinking complicity” ? No. It is, if anything, thoughtful abetting.
Grann clearly feels a need to address some elements that come up in the castaways' accounts, but I don't know if it works seamlessly. Grann frequently mentions that the written accounts come from Europeans with a European view, and that is a good and proper note. However, there is a relatively shallow examination of these contexts. I think there is a little more written about the press gangs at the start of the book than there is about the Kawésqar people later on. Perhaps in the paragraph I quoted above, what Grann seeks is not writing from the survivors on these topics, but from others. I don't know, and I don't know if he knows. I would have appreciated these things be better integrated throughout the story, rather than appearing in Chapter 26 and feeling somewhat tacked on — especially the paragraph above, which I feel has no precursor anywhere in the book. Perhaps the themes best captured across the full page count are hubris, social order in times of social collapse, and the time-tested want of militaries to engage in boondoggles.
This probably sounds negative, but I really liked the book! It does feel less congealed than Killers of the Flower Moon, and less capital-I “Important.” It was an engaging and itneresting shipwreck read though!
P.S.: I accidentally deleted the last two paragraphs of my review and they were so good. Please accept this hasty substitute. Shame on me for trusting the goodreads editor.
This is a stark contrast to the feel/flow of the author's other biggest work - while Killers of the Flower Moon had a strong textbook vibe, this one reads like epic, cinematic fiction. Also as non-fiction, it still weaves in a ton of cites, accounts, and facts from the research, but this time it is part of well structured and tight story with some brutal detail that makes you feel like you are in the 1700s. The only shortcoming could be that there are strong shades of Lord of Flies after the shipwreck, but this is a ‘true story' that happened ages before and the quality of writing gives this one has plenty more depth to it.
I enjoyed this audiobook. I could not get past the fact that the narrator also does The First 48 lol.
my girlfriend says I wouldn't like being a caulkers mate on a 94 gun second rate ship of the line, but I truly believe after the surgeon attempts to cauterize the amputation of my shot leg with boiling tar, I'd take a ration of grog, and die happy.
Grann expertly meshes the first hand accounts with an overarching tale of “the human condition” to really give you a sense of who these people were, how they felt, why they acted in certain ways, and in no way casts blame or bias. It’s a fantastic tale, and you can understand why this story still enthralls people.