Named one of Ten Best Books of 2025 by The Wall Street Journal Named one of Ten Best Books of
2025 by The Washington Post Named a Best Novel of 2025 by NPR and Publishers Weekly Named a
Best Historical Novel of 2025 by The New York Times "A powerful and original epic . . .
Deadly politics tragic romance and dangerous sea journeys keep the drama at a spirited boil."
- The New York Times "An epic of extraordinary abundance . . . modern and mythological. . .
wondrous enough to endure." - The Wall Street Journal "An epic that feels less created than
unearthed . . . The Wayfinder is sui generis - a tapestry of South Pacific myth archetypal
quest political allegory environmental jeremiad and feminist revision that feels both ancient
and impossibly relevant. " - The Washington Post 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.
