Wager

History

First published: 2023
Print length: 432 pagesKnopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2025

Description

In 1742, thirty emaciated sailors arrive in Brazil with an extraordinary account of survival. Their British warship had wrecked on a remote island off Patagonia while pursuing a Spanish treasure galleon during an imperial war. Stranded for months amid starvation and worsening discipline, the crew split into rival factions before some castaways built a fragile vessel and crossed thousands of miles of stormy ocean. Then three more survivors reach Chile with a sharply conflicting story, transforming endurance into a question of mutiny, treachery, and murder. David Grann follows the competing narratives to an Admiralty court martial, where execution is possible and testimony becomes a battle over authority, loyalty, and the violence underlying empire.

Reading profile

About this profile

Collected’s assessment, not reader ratings. Complexity runs from 1 (least demanding) to 5 (most demanding).

Writing: How much attention the sentences and language require.
Ideas: How much interpretation or abstract reasoning the book asks of you.
Structure: How much you need to keep track of speakers, timelines and connections.
Background knowledge: Prior knowledge needed to follow the book, beyond what it explains.
Emotional intensity: Emotional pressure, from gentle (1) to intense (5). Separate from difficulty.

Writing style

Descriptive · Direct · Journalistic

Pace

Brisk

Tone

Atmospheric · Dark · Suspenseful · Tense

Structure

Framed · Nonlinear

Focus

Character · Ideas · Plot

Emotional intensity

5 / 5

Reading complexity

1–5 · higher means more demanding

Writing: 3 / 5
Ideas: 3 / 5
Structure: 3 / 5
Background knowledge: 2 / 5

Themes

Colonialism and empireCrime and punishmentKnowledge and truthPowerSurvivalWar

About David Grann

David Grann is an American journalist and New Yorker staff writer whose narrative nonfiction combines investigative reporting with archival history. His books often begin with unresolved or contested events, which he reconstructs through primary documents, research synthesis, and close attention to character. The Lost City of Z follows Percy Fawcett’s disappearance and the generations drawn to his search, with Grann’s own journey into the Amazon woven into the investigation. Killers of the Flower Moon examines the murders of wealthy Osage people amid a struggle over oil profits, revealing how official accounts can conceal organized violence. In The Wager, he turns a shipwreck, mutiny, and disputed tale of survival into a study of human behavior under extreme pressure. Across these works, Grann uses mystery as a route into larger questions of evidence, power, and obsession. His distinction lies in building suspense while preserving the discipline of historical and journalistic inquiry.

Book details

For the print edition listed above.

Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Language: English
ISBN: 9780307742490

Keep your books and notes in Collected for iPhone.

Apple Books is a service mark of Apple Inc. iPhone is a trademark of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries.