On January 28, 1742, 30 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, remerged. They were greeted as heroes. But then, 6 months later, 3 castaways appear with a vastly different story: The 30 sailors were not heroes – they were mutineers. The Wager is a grand tale of human behavior at the extremes. 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 that it was not only the Wager’s captain and crew who were on trial – it was the very idea of empire.