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THE SUNDAY TIMES TOP TEN BESTSELLER
LONGLISTED FOR THE 2023 BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE FOR NONFICTION

The beauty ofThe Wagerunfurls like a great sail one of the finest nonfiction books Ive 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 Granns taste for desperate predicaments finds its fullest expression here Observer

From the internationalbestselling 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 martialthat reveals a shocking truth

On 28th January 1742 a ramshackle vessel of patchedtogether 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 Majestys ship The Wager a British vessel that had left England in 1740 on a secret mission during an imperial war with SpainWhile chasing a Spanish treasurefilled 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 2500 miles of stormwracked 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 tellThe 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 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 lifeanddeathfor whomever the court found guilty could hang