"The Wager: A Tale of Mutiny, Shipwreck and Murder" 1st/1st HC/DJ 2023

Description: ""The Wager: A Tale of Mutiny, Shipwreck and Murder" was written David Grann and published by Doubleday in New York in 2023.This is a hardcover, first edition, first printing of this superlative 329-page account by the author of the bestselling 'Killers of the Flower Moon,' featuring more than three-dozen color and black-and-white photographs, illustrations and endpaper maps.The original price, as shown on the dustjacket front flap, was $30.00.From the dustjacket blurb:“On January 28, 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 the Wager had been chasing a Spanish treasure-filled galleon known as "the prize of all the oceans," it had wrecked on a desolate island off the coast of Patagonia. The men, after being marooned for months and facing starvation, built the flimsy craft and sailed for more than a hundred days, traversing nearly three-thousand miles of storm-wracked seas. They were greeted as heroes.“But then . . . six months later, another, even more decrepit craft landed on the coast of Chile. This boat contained just three castaways, and they told a very different story. The 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 senior officer and his henchmen. It became clear that 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. “‘The Wager’ is a grand tale of human behavior at the extremes told by one of our greatest nonfiction writers. Grann's recreation of the hidden world on a British warship rivals the work of Patrick O'Brian, his portrayal of the castaways' desperate straits stands up to the classics of survival writing such as ‘The Endurance’, and his account of the court martial has the savvy of a Scott Turow thriller. As always with Grann's work, the incredible twists of the narrative hold the reader spellbound. Most powerfully he unearths the deeper meaning of the events, showing it was not only the Wager’s captain and crew who were on trial—it was the very idea of empire.”From the reviews:“The story of the shipwreck and its aftermath features scenery-chewing characters, unexpected twists and an almost unimaginable amount of human misery. Grann . . . tells it with style. He manages to wring maximum drama out of the events and sketch out nuanced portraits of key players on the doomed ship.”—Associated Press“A genre-defying literary naval-history thriller, part ‘Master and Commander’, part ‘Lord of the Flies.’”—Vanity Fair“Not just a good but a great story, fraught with duplicity, terror and occasional heroism . . . the story of the Wager is, like many of its antecedents—from Homer’s ‘Odyssey’ to ‘Mutiny on the Bounty’—a testament 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-scratching, improbable end.”—Los Angeles Times“Riveting . . . Reads like a thriller, tackling a multilayered history—and imperialism—with gusto.”—Time“A tour de force of narrative nonfiction.”—The Wall Street Journal “As much a rousing adventure as an exploration of the power of narratives to shape our perception of reality.”—The New York Times“Glorious, steely . . . a tightly written, relentless, blow-by-blow account that is hard to put down.”—The Washington Post“Propulsive . . . finely-detailed . . . a ripping yarn . . . remarkable.”—The Boston Globe “The most gripping sea-yarn I've read in years . . . A tour de force of narrative nonfiction. Mr. Grann’s account shows how storytelling, whether to judges or readers, can shape individual and national fortunes—as well as our collective memories”—Wall Street JournalThe book is in fine, collectible condition, with no torn or bent pages, no scratches, stains or inscriptions, no remainder marks, no price-clipping, no bookplate, no ex-library, no book club edition, no flaws of any sort. It is as new.The dustjacket is in equally fine shape and is protected in a clear and removable archival cover.Please see the photos for a fuller description and author profile.BLK BOX 82PLEASE SEE THE OTHER TITLES NOW LISTED IN MY EBAY STORE: DISTANT VOYAGE BOOKSPAYPAL PREFERREDWill combine shipping.All items are well packed and are normally mailed within two days of payment being received.My 100% feedback rating is valuable to me. If you are satisfied with a transaction, please leave feedback and I will do the same.Questions welcome. Additional photographs on request.Note: Scrolling through my listings will locate books in these and many other categories:Animals; Art & Architecture; Biography; Children’s; Collecting & Collectibles; Entertainment, Film & Theater; Fiction; Food & Drink; Gardening; History; Military; Music; Natural History; Nautical; Photography; Science & Technology; Travel; Space; Sports; Transportation. New titles added almost daily.

Price: 20 USD

Location: Yorba Linda, California

End Time: 2024-10-10T03:21:49.000Z

Shipping Cost: 5 USD