The Wide Wide Sea

Brought to you by Penguin.

A NEW YORK TIMES TOP-TEN BOOK OF 2024
A BARACK OBAMA BOOK OF THE YEAR

From New York Times bestselling author Hampton Sides, the epic account of the most momentous voyage of the Age of Exploration, culminating in Captain James Cook's death

On July 12th, 1776, Captain James Cook, already lionized as the greatest explorer in British history, set off on his third voyage in HMS Resolution. Two-and-a-half years later, on a beach in Hawaii, Cook was killed – beaten and stabbed in a conflict with the indigenous population.

What brought Cook to these final moments, so at odds with his reputation? Renowned for his humane leadership, dedication to science and the curiosity and respect, not judgement, with which he greeted societies that were new to him, Cook had already mapped huge swathes of the Pacific and initiated first European contact with numerous native peoples.

The stated mission for his third voyage was to return a Tahitian man, Mai, who had become the toast of London high society, to his home islands. But Cook carried secret orders to venture north, to discover the fabled Northwest Passage and chart and claim lands before Britain’s imperial rivals. And Cook himself was different on his final, fatal voyage.

Deeply researched and vividly told, The Wide Wide Sea is at once a ferociously-paced, epic adventure and a searching examination of the consequences of the Age of Exploration from a master storyteller.


‘Extraordinarily compulsive and fascinating. I felt it somehow told me more about the making of the modern world than any book I had read for ages' STEPHEN FRY, BOOKS OF THE YEAR, Observer
‘An astounding tale . . . recreated in swashbuckling detail . . . Sides delivers it with narrative urgency. The cast of characters is a joy’ Sunday Times
‘An enthralling account of Captain Cook’s final, fatal voyage... An excellent new book’ The Economist
‘A rollicking good read, with a tone that reminds me of David Grann’s recent tale of the 1741 Wager shipwreck . . . riveting’ Daily Telegraph
'Vivid and propulsive' New York Times


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