By Sahana C.

Land lubbers beware – this one was made for sea-lovin’ folk.  

I grew up obsessed with shipwreck stories. The might and fury of the ocean, the hubris of all those little people attempting to cross her, and their inevitable failures along the way always felt like the ultimate story of man versus nature.

Between Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe, Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, and Johann David Wyss’ The Swiss Family Robinson, I felt like I was preparing myself in case something wild happened and my account was needed to tell the story. I wrote field notes, carried a compass with me, and also carried a little kit full of tools in case I was caught off guard and thrown into the wilderness. It was like I was doomsday prepping, but I was eleven and only prepared for a night or two on my own.  

The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder by David Grann, nonfiction though it may be, is the same kind of rollicking, wave-crashing tale of survival that I devoured growing up, and the most titillating part is that it was all real. Lord Byron (yes, that one)’s grandfather was a prolific note-taker, and some of the other crew documented their own experiences through war with men and nature aboard the Wager, as well as their fight for survival after the shipwreck.

You want mutiny? Piracy? A Lord of the Flies-style attempt at societal structure and subsequent breakdown? You want nautical tales and stories of the open sea? The Wager has all of that and more. Grann weaves together a narrative from such disparate perspectives, he allows a reader feel as though they, too, are looking at this 18th-century phenomenon as it occurs. It’s a captivating, engrossing read, and I can’t recommend it highly enough. 

The audiobook is narrated in an absolutely compelling way; the book contains actual pictures of Wager Island from Grann’s own travels. No matter how you choose to read this work, you’re guaranteed to be sucked into the story. And more than that: you might be tempted, like I was, to start your own logbook – just in case something wild happens. 

David Grann also wrote Killers of the Flower Moon, which was recently adapted into a film, if that gives you any hint to how cinematic his books are. In The Wager, he weaves into a cohesive story the images of waves and barren island, the brutal fight for survival, and humanity laid bare.  

The Wager is available in print, large print, e-book, and e-audiobook.  

Sahana is an Instructor and Research Specialist at the Savage Branch. They enjoy adding books to their “want to read” list despite having a mountain of books waiting for them already.