A Most Anticipated Book of the Fall: The New York Times Los Angeles Times Chicago Tribune
"An epic of extraordinary abundance . . . modern and mythological. . . wondrous enough to
endure." - The Wall Street Journal "A powerful and original epic . . . Deadly politics
tragic romance and dangerous sea journeys keep the drama at a spirited boil." - The New York
Times A historical epic about a girl from a remote Tongan island who becomes her people's
queen. Talking corpses poetic parrots and a fan that wafts the breath of life-this is the
world young K¿rero finds herself thrust into when a mysterious visitor lands on her island a
place so remote its inhabitants have forgotten the word for stranger . Her people are desperate
and on the brink of starvation and the wayward stranger offers them an impossible choice: they
can remain in the only home they've ever known and await the uncertainty to come or K¿rero can
join him and venture into unfamiliar waters guided by only the night sky and his assurance of
a bountiful future in the Kingdom of Tonga. What K¿rero and her people don't know is that the
promised refuge is no utopia-instead Tonga is an empire at war and on the verge of collapse a
place where brains are regularly liberated from skulls and souls get trapped in coconuts with
some frequency. The perils of Tonga are compounded by a royal feud: loyalties are shifting
graves are being opened and everyone lives in fear of a jellyfish tattoo. Here survival can
rest on a perfectly performed dance or the acceptance of a cup of kava. Together the stranger
and K¿rero embark upon an epic voyage-one that will deliver them either to salvation or to the
depths of the Pacific. Evoking the grandeur of Wolf Hall and the splendor of Sh¿gun the
Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Adam Johnson conjures oral history restores the natural world
and locates what's best in humanity. Toweringly ambitious and breathtakingly immersive The
Wayfinder is an instant timeless classic.
