#1 Bestselling Historian David Grann Presents “The Wager”

St. Louis County Library Foundation’s Westfall Politics & History Series presents #1 bestselling historian and author of “Killers of the Flower Moon” David Grann for a discussion and signing of “The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny, and Murder.”

The event will take place on Monday, April 24 at 7:00 p.m. at the Ethical Society of St. Louis, 9001 Clayton Road, St. Louis MO 63117.

The program is free and open to the public. Books will be available for purchase at the event from Left Bank Books.

From the #1 bestselling author of “Killers of the Flower Moon,” “The Wager” is a page-turning 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. 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 3,000 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. As always with Grann’s work, the incredible twists of the narrative hold the reader spellbound.

David Grann is the author of the #1 New York Times bestsellers “Killers of the Flower Moon” and “The Lost City of Z.” “Killers of the Flower Moon” was a finalist for the National Book Award and won an Edgar Allan Poe Award. He is also the author of “The White Darkness” and the collection “The Devil and Sherlock Holmes.” Grann’s investigative reporting has garnered several honors, including a George Polk Award. 

Program sites are accessible. With at least two weeks' notice, accommodations will be made for persons with disabilities. Call 314-994-3300 or contact us.