Magellan

The life of the great Portuguese explorer who dared to sail beyond the horizon

The Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan (1480-1521) is one of the most famous navigators in history-he was the first man to sail from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, and led the first voyage to circumnavigate the globe, although he was killed en route in a battle with natives in the Phillipines. In this biography, Zweig brings to life the Age of Discovery by telling the tale of one of the era’s most daring adventurers. In typically flowing and elegant prose he takes us on a fascinating journey of discovery ourselves.

Stefan Zweig (1881-1942) was born in Vienna, into a wealthy Austrian-Jewish family. He studied in Berlin and Vienna and was first known as a poet and translator, then as a biographer. Zweig travelled widely, living in Salzburg between the wars, and was an international bestseller with a string of hugely popular novellas including Letter from an Unknown Woman, Amok and Fear.