Over the Edge of the World Updated Edition: Magellan's Terrifying Circumnavigation of the Globe

“A first-rate historical page turner.” —New York Times Book Review

The acclaimed and bestselling account of Ferdinand Magellan’s historic 60,000-mile ocean voyage.

Ferdinand Magellan's daring circumnavigation of the globe during the Age of Discovery was a three-year odyssey filled with sex, violence, and amazing adventure. Now in Over the Edge of the World Updated Edition, prize-winning biographer and journalist Laurence Bergreen entwines a variety of candid, firsthand accounts, bringing to life this groundbreaking and majestic tale of maritime history and discovery that changed both the way explorers would henceforth navigate the oceans and history itself.

Now updated to include a new introduction commemorating the 500th anniversary of Magellan’s voyage.

This riveting work of narrative history reveals:

• First Circumnavigation: The astonishing true story of the three-year, 60,000-mile odyssey that proved the world was round—a journey of mutiny, violence, and unbelievable hardship.
• A Gripping True Adventure: Discover the sex, storms, and starvation that plagued the 260 sailors who set out from Spain, and the dark secrets of the handful of gaunt survivors who returned.
• The Age of Sail: Drawn from candid, firsthand accounts, this majestic tale brings the sixteenth-century world of discovery to life, changing history and navigation forever.
• Historical Biography: A fascinating portrait of Ferdinand Magellan, the driven, visionary, and brutal captain who became a man without a country to complete his quest.

In 1519, Ferdinand Magellan, armed with five ships and about 260 men, set sail from Spain in search of a water route to the West Indies. Despite suffering starvation, disease, torture, and death, they discovered the passageway known today as the Strait of Magellan. In the masterful telling of award-winning historian Laurence Bergreen, one of the most epic voyages of the age of exploration comes to life.

“Prodigious research, sure-footed prose and vivid descriptions make for a thoroughly satisfying account... it is all here in the wondrous detail, a first-rate historical page turner.” - New York Times Book Review

“Bergreen’s vivid account benefits from extensive research and his own navigation of the Strait of Magellan and other key parts of thr route. But it’s the epic survival drama that grips, spanning mutiny, torture and Magellan’s death in the Philippines.” - Los Angeles Times

“Engrossing . . . Bergreen has done a fine job of telling Magellan’s story. He portrays the explorer as a complex man--driven, disciplined and often cruel but with extraordinary vision and seemingly limitless courage.” - Cleveland Plain Dealer

“A marvelous piece of scholarship” - New Zealand Herald

“Bergreen’s research is so filled with wondrous discoveries, his writing so filled with unforgettable scenes…” - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

“In delivering this excellent, highly readable account of the first circumnavigation of the globe, Bergreen does full justice to Magellan, the visionary captain who sailed west into the great unknown.” - San Antonio Express-News