The Wide Wide Sea

An enthralling account of Captain Cook’s final, fatal voyage . . . an excellent book

Economist

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

'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

'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

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 astounding tale

Sunday Times

A riveting book, deeply researched, light of touch and always judicious and full-sailed about an exceptional man's final extraordinary journey

Spectator

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

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