The Wager

Reviews

‘While the story of HMS Wager is well known, David Grann brings a distinctive and specialized approach to his treatment of it. He has carefully built his book on a firm knowledge of the published historical literature on the period and an extensive examination of the manuscript sources in a wide range of archives in England, Scotland, Australia and the United States. […] He has structured this book not as an analytical historian but as a mystery writer’ ‘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’  ‘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’

  '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'  'Grann recreates the voyage in all its enthralling horror'  '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' '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'    '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'  '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'  'A genre-defying literary naval-history thriller, part Master and Commander, part Lord of the Flies'  ‘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’   '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'  '... 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'  'The Wager is unadorned, almost pure, horror-filled plot ... a tightly written, relentless, blow-by-blow account that is hard to put down'  'Bestseller Grann (Killers of the Flower Moon) delivers a concise and riveting account of the HMS Wager… 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' 'David Grann is one of the very select club of writers: those who books of history are so diverting that they almost seem implausible. Their narrative constrictions are so effective, the dialogue so apposite, that jaded readers might think everything has been made up or twisted to give the books life, in novelistic fashion'  'I cannot think of anyone who would not love this book . . . It is an extraordinary true story, beautifully written' Expand reviews