
The Wager
A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder
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Narrated by:
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Dion Graham
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David Grann
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By:
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David Grann
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the author of Killers of the Flower Moon, a thrilling 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 listener spellbound.
©2023 David Grann (P)2023 Random House AudioListeners also enjoyed...




















Mic Check with Dion Graham
Critic reviews
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
A Best Book of the Year: The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, TIME, NPR, Esquire, BookPage
“The most gripping sea-yarn I’ve read in years….A tour de force of narrative nonfiction. Mr. Grann’s account show how storytelling, whether to judges or readers, can shape individual and national fortunes–as well as our collective memories.”—Wall Street Journal
“Glorious, steely…a tightly written, relentless, blow-by-blow account that is hard to put down”—The Washington Post
“As much a rousing adventure as an exploration of the power of narratives to shape our perception of reality.”—The New York Times
Editorial Review
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Breathless Machine Gun Style of Narration
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Unfortunately the narrator left me feeling…underwhelmed. The ship was English, so why wasn’t it read with an English accent? Also, why was every part of the story read with climatic intonation? It needed to come ‘down’ to give the more dire details some emphasis. The voice volume was a constant loud/soft roller coaster. Definitely off-putting.
Great story; narration: not so much
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good story exhausting narration
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Timeless tale
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Interesting Story Damaged by Narration
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Okay story but poor performance
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Irritating reader. Great story
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Ok but not great.
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Great Story
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Informative
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