The Wager cover art

The Wager

 Preview
Try Premium Plus free
1 credit a month to buy any audiobook in our entire collection.
Access to thousands of additional audiobooks and Originals from the Plus Catalogue.
Member-only deals & discounts.
Auto-renews at $16.45/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

The Wager

By: David Grann
Narrated by: Dion Graham
Try Premium Plus free

Auto-renews at $16.45/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for $26.99

Buy Now for $26.99

About this listen

 THE SUNDAY TIMES NUMBER ONE BESTSELLER

*LONGLISTED FOR THE 2023 BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION*

'The beauty of The Wager unfurls like a great sail... one of the finest nonfiction books I’ve 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… Grann’s taste for desperate predicaments finds its fullest expression here’ Observer

From the international bestselling 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 martial that reveals a shocking truth.

On 28th January 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 chasing a Spanish treasure-filled 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 2,500 miles of storm-wracked 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 tell. The thirty sailors who landed in Brazil were not heroes – they were mutineers. The first group responded with counter-charges 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 life-and-death—for whomever the court found guilty could hang.
©2023 David Grann (P)2023 Penguin Random House Audio US Armed Forces Military Naval Forces Latin America War England
All stars
Most relevant  
I loved it all. We have such true, incredible stories from history, many of which are no longer remembered. This is one of those stories. If it weren’t true, you’d think it was a just a tall tale.

Incredible story of survival and hardship. Excellent reader too.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
A incredible story well told. The narrator was talented and brought life to the story, though British English artist would have provided the realism. Throughly recommend.

Brilliant read

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
A wonderful, compelling story, told with brio. Deeply researched but fast paced. Narration is excellent. Tone just right for the style of book

Ripping, incredible yarn

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Engaging telling on the history of a remote and beautiful part of the world. What hasn’t been written tells a lot.

Great adventure

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This is an adventure story matching Shackleton’s voyage or the wreck of the Batavia, maybe one of the most incredible and forgotten in all history. Thoroughly researched and well narrated I recommend it very highly.

Ripping Tale of True Adventure

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
David Grann has drawn together from disparate historical records an utterly engrossing tale of human nature facing challenges against both itself and the forces of nature. The story is underwritten by issues of European colonialism, British classism, and the question of how human nature reacts under pressure. Grann does an excellent job of holding the competing narratives in tension, while simultaneously addressing the larger issues these raise.

The narration by Dion Graham was breathless and engaging which underlined the momentous struggles the protagonists were suffering. I had a few minor quibbles with pronunciation. Since this story relates to the British military hierarchy, 'lieutenant' should have been pronounced in the British way ('leftenant') and not the American way ('lootenant'). And how did the narrator manage to scramble the name 'Don Juan' (pronounced by him 'Joo-an') yet be able to pronounce correctly the 'Juan Fernandez islands'?

Overall an excellent listen that utterly absorbed me. It was disappointing to hear in the Acknowledgments however that the printed book contained images and I assume maps that were not uploaded as a PDF to the audiobook. I would very much have appreciated being able to refer to maps during the narration.

Utterly engrossing tale of human nature

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Fantastic writing, great narration, & riveting adventure tale that, in a refreshing twist, refuses to glorify the ruthless gluttony of British imperialism.

Impeccably researched, and sheds a grim new light on the accounts on which so many influential classics are based.

Phenomenal read

A gripping adventure overshadowed by a darker imperial truth

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
What possessed the publishers to use an American narrator for this most English of stories? Disappointing.

Performance disappointing

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This book is well researched but unfortunately the narrators theatrical performance is to distracting and makes the story hard to follow at times.

Great story unfortunately bad performance.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Love this book! An amazing story from a fascinating time in history that I’m astonished I’d not come across before.

The author deals with the subject superbly, skilfully pulling at deep and complex themes like human nature, civilisation, imperialism, morality, justice. The agency of the men was respected, their actions and reasoning illuminated by the impartiality of the author and the light of fair a historical reckoning.

The characters were developed well, and the story told through them in a way that did not impose one or another particular narrative. The contradictions and ambiguities in the various survivor’s accounts were laid bare, doubt left unresolved, all while telling a cohesive story.

I liked the narration too. I admit a general preference for english voices in narration, as it’s what I grew up with, and I felt a little trepidation hearing and American accent begin telling such an English tale. I soon warmed to it though, the story was told very well, with great clarity and emotion.

Thank you for a lovely experience!

Amazing Story!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews
In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.