Marathon City: Book Club: “The Wager” by David Grann

Join us with other book lovers for a discussion of a variety of books—new and old, fiction and nonfiction! Our September selection is “The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder” by David Grann.

“The Wager” is a mesmerizing story of shipwreck, survival, and savagery, culminating in a court martial that reveals a shocking truth. 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 2500 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 had a very different story to tell. “The Wager” is a grand tale of human behavior at the extremes told by one of our greatest nonfiction writers.

Everyone is welcome to join the discussion! Stop by MCPL-Marathon City to pick up a copy of the book. For more information, please contact us at 715-443-2775.