From a Wall Street Journal story by Caryn James headlined “Why David Grann, Bestselling Adventure Writer, Isn’t One for the Outdoors”:

Although David Grann is quick to admit he’s not exactly cut out to be an adventurer, his nonfiction books follow the most daring explorers through the Amazon, Antarctica and now, with The Wager, published today, the high seas. The Wager centers on an 18th-century British shipwreck and mutiny, featuring castaways and murder on an uninhabitable island off the coast of Chile. “I get lost. I don’t hunt. I hate to camp. I hate bugs,” Grann, 56, says. “I have this eye disorder that makes it hard for me to see. I’m incredibly ill-suited for all these things.”