The Wager
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The Wager
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Narrated by:
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Dion Graham
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By:
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David Grann
About this listen
*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.
©2023 David Grann (P)2023 Penguin Random House Audio US
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Critic reviews
(Miranda Seymour)
What listeners say about The Wager
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Andrew McGregor
- 20-07-23
Amazing story of the challenges of life at sea and leadership
A great effort to pull all the threads of source material to bring an honest account (as best one can) of an extraordinary story. Understand a film is in the works and I look forward to it.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Rafique Rahman
- 17-11-23
Brilliantly done
Really enjoyed this one a good adventure story the narrative was very interesting and easy to follow. I listened to it in one night
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Samantha
- 15-05-24
Remarkable knowledge of History
Loved this book, of old tale & history. An exciting yet deep narrative of a world gone by.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Charles
- 21-05-24
A great story
Not my usual cup of tea, gripping and written very well. Time to go back to more of the genre.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Steve
- 30-04-24
Solid and captivating history
I really enjoyed this. It was history at its most captivating, told in a way that never got too dense or complex. A fascinating cast of characters whose actions are, in someways, understandable. Maybe not then, but certainly nowadays as we have learnt so much about the horrors of deprivation and stress.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 19-10-24
An astonishing true story
Based on historical fact from journals and records of the time The Wager reads like an exciting novel. How the men on board the ship endured such extreme hardships and then the even worse hardships of being shipwrecked and the mutiny that followed, all while being stranded on an inhospitable island, is an extraordinary tale with plenty of twist and turns. Consequently it explores the moral issues of leadership, hierarchy, and humanity under endurance - issues which are still relevant in modern times.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 09-08-23
Great story hampered by odd narration
I have no issue with the narrator being American rather than English; the author is American and it makes no difference to the quality of the telling - but the performance is rather odd putting in this case. He over emphasizes and moulds the narration as if in a radio drama rather than standing back and let the excellent writing tell the story. it's not a deal breaker but it did have me frequently wondering why he was performing in such a way. the overall story and writing are excellent though so worth a listen for that alone, and others may be less irked than I was by the style of reading!
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6 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 11-01-24
Fascinating Story
I really enjoyed this book. I am extremely thankful not to be an 18th century seaman. My only issues with the audio book were pronunciation. It’s a book about the British Navy so it was jarring to hear lieutenant pronounced every time.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Mr. Andrew Dennis
- 02-07-23
Really interesting and well researched
Clearly well researched but also very well written. It’s a harrowing story exposing how hardships can bring out the worst in us.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Paige
- 19-01-24
It is evident the amount of facts and research that had gone into writing this book.
I loved the angles this told the story from! The accounts where clearly laid out and gave an opportunity for the reader to choose who’s side of events they could connect with the most. The entire story is interesting and quite thrilling to read however I did find that it took as most books do a a few chapters to really bury myself into the story. I would highly recommend.
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