Books like “The Wager”

What to read after “The Wager” by David Grann: a list matched by tropes, mood and atmosphere. Under each book you will see what it has in common.

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1
Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage
Alfred Lansing · 1959
Same genre: “Narrative nonfiction”
In 1914 Ernest Shackleton sets out to cross Antarctica; in 1915 his ship is crushed by the ice and the crew is left stranded. This account follows their months on drifting floes and the desperate open-boat journey he makes to seek rescue.
2
The Long Ships
Frans G. Bengtsson · 1941
Similar setting: “Nautical Adventure”
- Nautical Adventure
- Survival
The Viking Red Orm sails from his Scandinavian home in the late tenth century and is carried through raids, courts and distant seas, from Andalusia to the Byzantine guard. A picaresque saga of raids, treasure and shifting faith, told with dry humour and a wide view of the Viking world.
3
Master and Commander
Patrick O'Brian · 1969
Similar setting: “Nautical Adventure”
- Nautical Adventure
In 1800, Royal Navy captain Jack Aubrey takes command of a small brig and meets the ship's surgeon, Stephen Maturin, a naturalist and secret intelligence agent. Their friendship grows as the crew pursues a Spanish frigate across the Mediterranean and Atlantic.
4
Treasure Island
Robert Louis Stevenson · 1883
Similar setting: “Deserted Island” and “Nautical Adventure”
Young Jim Hawkins finds a treasure map in a dead sailor's chest and sails for a distant island where a pirate's gold is buried. Among the crew is the one-legged cook Long John Silver, whose charm hides a plan to seize the hoard.
5
Robinson Crusoe
Daniel Defoe · 1719
Similar setting: “Deserted Island” and “Nautical Adventure”
Shipwrecked alone on a deserted island, a castaway named Robinson Crusoe builds a life from nothing: shelter, crops and a canoe. Years of solitude end when he finds a footprint in the sand and rescues a man he names Friday.
6
The Mysterious Island
Jules Verne · 1875
Similar setting: “Deserted Island” and “Nautical Adventure”
Five Union prisoners escape a siege in a hot-air balloon and are blown onto an uncharted island. There they rebuild a small civilization from its resources, aided by an unseen hand and threatened by a hidden danger.
7
Salt to the Sea
Ruta Sepetys · 2016
Similar setting: “Nautical Adventure”
- Nautical Adventure
- Survival
Four young refugees cross a frozen East Prussia in the winter of 1945, each hiding a secret and hoping to reach a ship that will carry them west. Their paths merge among the crowds fleeing the advancing Soviet army, bound for a vessel whose fate none of them suspect.
8
The Terror
Dan Simmons · 2007
Similar setting: “Nautical Adventure”
- Nautical Adventure
- Survival
In 1845 two Royal Navy ships sail to find the Northwest Passage and vanish into the Arctic ice. As the crews endure cold, scurvy and starvation, they are stalked across the frozen waste by a creature that should not exist.
9
The Decagon House Murders
Yukito Ayatsuji · 1987
Similar setting: “Deserted Island”
- Deserted Island
- Survival
Seven members of a university mystery club sail to a remote island that was the scene of an unsolved family murder a year earlier. Cut off by a storm, they are killed one by one, and the survivors must use the rules of detective fiction to name the killer before none are left.
10
The Arctic Fury
Greer Macallister · 2020
Similar plot moves: “Courtroom Drama” and “Survival”
- Courtroom Drama
- Survival
Virginia Reeve is hired to lead a dozen women into the Arctic in search of a lost expedition. When only some of them come back, she is tried for murder in Boston. The courtroom testimony and the journey north slowly reveal what happened out on the ice.
11
The Martian
Andy Weir · 2011
Similar setting: “Deserted Island”
- Deserted Island
- Survival
During a mission to Mars, astronaut Mark Watney is presumed dead and left behind. Alone with limited supplies and no way to call Earth, he applies his botany and engineering skills to grow food and signal that he is alive.
12
The Sea-Wolf
Jack London · 1904
Similar setting: “Nautical Adventure”
- Nautical Adventure
- Survival
A literary critic survives a ferry collision in San Francisco Bay and is picked up by a sealing schooner commanded by Wolf Larsen, a brutal and brilliant captain. Thrown into the crew's rough life, the soft scholar must find his footing under a man who answers to no law but his own.