Feelings:
- Enjoyable
- Loved the History behind it
- Ethical Dilemmas
- Multiple Character POVs
- Duty vs. Survival
Reflection:
The Wager follows the ill-fated British naval vessel, which wrecked off the coast of Patagonia in 1741. Stranding its crew on a remote and storm-lashed island, what unfolds is months of starvation, mutiny, and moral collapse, and then remarkably, survival.
The story is told through multiple perspectives, specifically those of Captain David Cheap and gunner John Bulkeley. The two men experienced the same disaster and yet returned home with wildly contradictory accounts.
The tension between duty and survival, and between facts and the stories we create to justify our choices, is the heart of the book.
Overall, I enjoyed listening to this on audiobook while I weeded my garden beds and re-mulched. The narrator kept me engrossed enough to follow the plot and the drama, while also learning about the historical setting that greatly influenced the characters' moral & ethical choices.
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