The Wide Wide Sea

An astounding tale * Sunday Times * A rollicking good read, with a tone that reminds me of David Grann’s recent tale of the 1741 Wager shipwreck . . . riveting * Daily Telegraph * An enthralling account of Captain Cook’s final, fatal voyage . . . an excellent book * Economist * A riveting book, deeply researched, light of touch and always judicious and full-sailed about an exceptional man's final extraordinary journey * Spectator * Vivid and propulsive . . . New Zealand, Tahiti, Kamchatka, Hawaii and London come alive with you-are-there descriptions of gales, crushing ice packs and gun smoke . . . but Sides isn’t just interested in retelling an adventure tale. He also wants to present it from a 21st-century point of view. The Wide Wide Sea fits neatly into a growing genre that includes David Grann’s The Wager and Candice Millard’s River of the Gods' * New York Times * A lightning rod, an icon, a totem, a cipher, Cook remains endlessly fascinating. A lively, vivid, highly readable addition to the vast body of literature about a powerful and complicated figure whose legacy – love him or hate him – is impossible to ignore * The Times Literary Supplement * 'Hampton Sides, an acclaimed master of the nonfiction narrative, has taken on Cook’s story and retells it for the 21st century . . . The result is a work that will enthrall Cook’s admirers, inform his critics and entertain everyone in between' * Los Angeles Times * A thrilling tale * History Today * 'With gripping prose, Sides details Cook's increasingly erratic behavior as he explored vast swaths of the Pacific and scrambled to find the fabled Northwest Passage along the ice-choked coast of Alaska. His account lays bare the Age of Exploration's moral perils, which continue to reverbarate today' * Outside Magazine * 'Sides make a persuasive case in 387 pages of diligent, riveting reporting that Cook came as a navigator and mapmaker and in dramatically opening what was known about our world, made us all richer in knowledge' * Associated Press * 'The Wide Wide Sea portrays Cook as a complicated figure driven by instincts and motives that often seem to have been opaque even to him . . . As Cook himself seemed to have realised, and at times lamented, he was but an instrument in a much, much larger scheme' * New Yorker * An enthralling narrative . . . authoritative yet lively. Sides presents a balanced assessment of Cook’s unique achievements and frailties. The facts of his voyage are so dramatic and Earth-changing in their consequences that they are well worth retelling * New Zealand Herald *