Riveting.The NewYork Times Book Review

Hundreds of miles fromcivilization, two ships wreck on opposite ends of the same deserted island inthis true storyof human nature at its bestand at its worst.

It is 1864, and Captain Thomas Musgraves schooner, theGrafton, has just wrecked on AucklandIsland, a forbidding piece of land 285 milessouth of New Zealand. Battered byyear-round freezing rain and constant winds, it is one of the most inhospitableplaces on earth. To beshipwrecked there means almost certain death.

Incredibly, at the same time on the opposite end of theisland, another ship runs aground during a storm. Separatedby only twentymiles and the islands treacherous, impassable cliffs, the crews of theGraftonand theInvercauldface the same fate. And yet where theInvercauldscrew turns inward onitself, fighting, starving, and even turning to cannibalism, Musgraves crew bandstogether to build a cabin and a forgeand eventually, to find a way to escape.

Using the survivors journals and historical records,award-winning maritime historian Joan Druett brings to life thisextraordinaryuntold story about leadership and the fine line between order and chaos.