The Wayfinder

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.