The Wayfinder
From the author of The Orphan Masterâs Son (winner of the Pulitzer Prize) and Fortune Smiles (winner of the US National Book Award) a mythic masterpiece named one of âTen Best Books of 2025â by the Wall Street Journaland the Washington Post From the author of The Orphan Masterâs Son, winner of the Pulitzer Prize, and Fortune Smiles, winner of the US National Book Award, an epic masterpiece named one of âTen Best Books of 2025â by the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post âAn epic of extraordinary abundance⊠modern and mythological⊠wondrous enough to endureâ Wall Street Journal What KĆrero and her people donât know is that the promised refuge is no utopia - Tonga is an empire at war and on the verge of collapse, a place where brains are regularly liberated from skulls and souls may become trapped in coconuts.
âAwesome⊠This astonishing novel, at once so primeval and so sophisticated, pulses with the same hopes and terrors that first pricked our imaginations around a fire as the sun set - a tapestry of South Pacific myth, archetypal quest, political allegory, environmental jeremiad and feminist revision that feels both ancient and impossibly relevant.â Washington Post
When a mysterious visitor lands on her island, a place so remote its inhabitants have forgotten the word for stranger, young KĆrero finds herself thrust into a terrifying and magical world. 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 theyâve ever known and await the uncertainty to come, or KĆrero 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.Â
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 KĆrero 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 ShĆgun, Pulitzer Prizewinning novelist Adam Johnson conjures oral history, restores the natural world, and locates whatâs best in humanity. Toweringly ambitious and breathtakingly immersive, The Wayfinder is an instant, timeless classic.
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From the author of The Orphan Masterâs Son (winner of the Pulitzer Prize) and Fortune Smiles (winner of the US National Book Award) a mythic masterpiece named one of âTen Best Books of 2025â by the Wall Street Journaland the Washington Post From the author of The Orphan Masterâs Son, winner of the Pulitzer Prize, and Fortune Smiles, winner of the US National Book Award, an epic masterpiece named one of âTen Best Books of 2025â by the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post âAn epic of extraordinary abundance⊠modern and mythological⊠wondrous enough to endureâ Wall Street Journal What KĆrero and her people donât know is that the promised refuge is no utopia - Tonga is an empire at war and on the verge of collapse, a place where brains are regularly liberated from skulls and souls may become trapped in coconuts.
âAwesome⊠This astonishing novel, at once so primeval and so sophisticated, pulses with the same hopes and terrors that first pricked our imaginations around a fire as the sun set - a tapestry of South Pacific myth, archetypal quest, political allegory, environmental jeremiad and feminist revision that feels both ancient and impossibly relevant.â Washington Post
When a mysterious visitor lands on her island, a place so remote its inhabitants have forgotten the word for stranger, young KĆrero finds herself thrust into a terrifying and magical world. 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 theyâve ever known and await the uncertainty to come, or KĆrero 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.Â
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 KĆrero 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 ShĆgun, Pulitzer Prizewinning novelist Adam Johnson conjures oral history, restores the natural world, and locates whatâs best in humanity. Toweringly ambitious and breathtakingly immersive, The Wayfinder is an instant, timeless classic.
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