The Wager

'The beauty of The Wager unfurls like a great sail... one of the finest nonfiction books Ive ever read. I can only offer the highest praise a writer can give: endless envy, as deep and salty as the sea' -- Matthew Teague * Guardian * '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' * Sunday Telegraph * 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 * Sunday Times * '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' * People * 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 Granns magnificent story of both life at sea and out on the desolate, mist-laden island whose solitary peak the Wagers unfortunate crew aptly named Mount Misery -- Miranda Seymour * Financial Times * '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' * The Los Angeles Times * A tour de force of narrative nonfiction, Mr. Granns account shows how storytelling, whether to judges or readers, can shape individual and national fortunesas well as our collective memory... The Wager is likely to cast a powerful spell on modern readers as well * Wall Street Journal * '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' * The Economist * '... 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' * Rolling Stone * 'Grann recreates the voyage in all its enthralling horror' * New York Times Bestseller list, 'Editor's Choice' * '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' * The New York Times * 'The Wager is unadorned, almost pure, horror-filled plot ... a tightly written, relentless, blow-by-blow account that is hard to put down' * The Washington Post * '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 seafrom scurvy-induced delirium to the mechanics of loading and firing a cannonand 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' * Publishers Weekly * 'A genre-defying literary naval-history thriller, part Master and Commander, par

David Grann is the author of the Number One international bestsellers KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON, THE LOST CITY OF Z and THE WAGER. KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON was shortlisted for the CWA ALCS Gold Dagger for Non-Fiction and won an Edgar Allan Poe Award. He is also the author of THE WHITE DARKNESS and the collection THE DEVIL AND SHERLOCK HOLMES. Grann's storytelling has garnered several honours including a George Polk Award. He lives with his wife and children in Westchester County, New York.