The Wide Wide Sea Reading Guide & Discussion Questions

Book Club Discussion Questions

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For supplemental discussion material see our Beyond the Book article, The History of Grog and our BookBrowse Review of The Wide Wide Sea.

Please be aware that this discussion guide will contain spoilers!

These are original discussion questions written for BookBrowse

1. What aspects of Captain James Cook's character do you find most compelling or contradictory? How do they shape your understanding of him? Do you find the author's portrayal balanced or biased?
2. Discuss the role of Indigenous peoples in the book. How does Sides incorporate their perspectives, and why is this important, in your opinion? How might the story change if we had more accounts from the people Cook encountered?
3. Sides uses primary sources, like journals from Cook's crew, to construct his narrative. What did you think of this technique?

Unless otherwise stated, this discussion guide is reprinted with the permission of Vintage. Any page references refer to a USA edition of the book, usually the trade paperback version, and may vary in other editions.