In 1518, an exiled Portuguese named Magellan convinced the King of Spain, Charles V, of a crazy project: "There is a passage that leads from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean. Give me a fleet, and I will show it to you, and I will circumnavigate the Earth from east to west." The expedition set sail in 1519 and returned three years later, battered but victorious. Despite false maps, mutinies, cold, hunger, and illness, Magellan forced the strait that now bears his name and conquered the then-unknown Pacific. A heroic fate, masterfully narrated and reflected upon by Zweig.