The Wager

A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder

By: David Grann

Narrated by: Dion Graham, David Grann

Length: 8 hrs and 28 mins

Publisher's summary

#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 Audio

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

Breathless Machine Gun Style of Narration

I've listened to dozens of audiobooks, but NEVER have I listened to anyone keep up this staccato overly emotion filled reading for so long. David Gann has written a very good book, but this narrator overly emphasizes every single sentence as if it were a supreme disaster, thus making it nearly impossible to fully comprehend when (at the proper points in the story) an actual disaster genuinely takes place. OK, I understand that nobody likes a monotone reader, however this was on the total opposite end of the spectrum. Personally, I hated this style of narration and feel very strongly that this book could easily have been a top favorite of mine with a different narrator.

Great story; narration: not so much

The Wager is a compelling story of mutiny at sea and survival against all odds.
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.

Timeless tale

Never thought I would appreciate the detail of the sailing minutia, but I was captivated by it. The narrator was brilliant and the last chapter let’s us know that cover ups will always be a part of the historical narrative.

good story exhausting narration

As a long time fan of Patrick O'Brien's books, particularly in audio form, I enjoyed the content, story and attention to detail in The Wager. Unfortunately I found the constant gratuitously breathless and overly dramatic narration exhausting. The griping story, if simply just read , could easily stand on its own merits retaining the interest of the listener without resorting to off-putting melodramatic artifice.

Great Story

Well done, interesting chapter of the Jenkins Ear War and what the navy went through in that era. Narration could be better but was acceptable. Highly recommend

Informative

Exciting and suspenseful always waiting for the next pair ail these unfortunate seamen had to suffer through.

Finished in a day

I couldn’t stop, I might go buy the book just to have a copy. Enjoy!

A masterpiece

Best book, I have read in the past decade. From start to finish, could not put it down. Great storyteller who pays attention to small details and weaves and yarns just about anyone to find fascinating.

Okay story but poor performance

I agree with many others who found the narration irritating: breathless and overly dramatic. I found myself listening for the reader’s next gasp rather than paying attention to what he was saying.

Interesting Story Damaged by Narration

I occasionally like a good adventure yarn which so i took a chance on this new book. I was irritated immediately by the narration which is overly dramatic. Every word in virtually every sentence is spit out by the narrator with great amplification. This is unnecessary for the background story and seriously detracts as my attention seems to be drawn to this hammy attempt to slay with violence every period, comma and hyphen in the text and add multiple exclamation points to even the most mundane fact recounted. I can't recommend this book although I did finish it.