The Wayfinder
Published on 4. June 2026
Book
Paperback/Softback
736 pages
978-1-3985-6157-1 (ISBN)
Description
From the author of The Orphan Master's Son, winner of the Pulitzer Prize, and Fortune Smiles, winner of the US National Book Award, an epic masterpiece named one of 'Ten Best Books of 2025' by the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post
'Awesome... 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.' Washington Post
'An epic of extraordinary abundance... modern and mythological... wondrous enough to endure' Wall Street Journal
When a mysterious visitor lands on her island, a place so remote its inhabitants have forgotten the word for stranger, young Korero 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 they've ever known and await the uncertainty to come, or Korero 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 Korero and her people don't 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.
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 Korero 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 Shogun, Pulitzer Prizewinning 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.
'Awesome... 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.' Washington Post
'An epic of extraordinary abundance... modern and mythological... wondrous enough to endure' Wall Street Journal
When a mysterious visitor lands on her island, a place so remote its inhabitants have forgotten the word for stranger, young Korero 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 they've ever known and await the uncertainty to come, or Korero 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 Korero and her people don't 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.
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 Korero 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 Shogun, Pulitzer Prizewinning 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.
Reviews / Votes
'Epic in every sense of the word, this is a high wire act that burns the net below.' Marlon James, Booker-Prizewinning author of A Brief History of Seven Killings'An epic of extraordinary abundance... modern and mythological... wondrous enough to endure' Wall Street Journal
'An epic that feels less created than unearthed . . . Johnson's dizzying attention to the mercurial crosscurrents of conquest recalls . . . Olga Tokarczuk's The Books of Jacob. His bold melding of magic and psychological realism casts a spell as captivating as Marlon James's Black Leopard, Red Wolf. Yet 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.' Ron Charles, The Washington Post
'Johnson is a master builder of fictive worlds. The Wayfinder is a story of cultural erasure wrapped into a fantastical fable.' Los Angeles Times
'This is one of [Adam Johnson's] biggest swings yet . . . A sprawling epic.' Joumana Khatib, The New York Times Book Review
'[An] epic-scale historical adventure from Pulitzer Prize winner Adam Johnson . . . Johnson paints a rich tale of nature, politics, and tradition . . . It's a unique, spellbinding saga that drew us into an elaborate world.' Apple's Best of the Month
'[Johnson's] audacious, unruly imagination roams with confidence through the island kingdom of Tonga . . . A grand, perilous and transfiguring adventure . . . Enchanted touches are deftly threaded into the rangy storyline by Johnson's richly lyrical prose, which is also capable of handling the social dynamics of the Tongans along with the background stories of royalty and their rivals . . . A world that, like the pendant recovered at the novel's start, feels 'both ancient and startlingly new.'' Kirkus Reviews
'A majestic saga of political unrest in the South Pacific and a girl's quest to save her people . . . This is remarkable.' Publishers Weekly (starred review)
'Expansive in scope, historically detailed, and totally enthralling . . . Johnson's monumental research into the history, legacy, and imprint of the Polynesian culture is evident in the meticulous detail of his narrative?which is about much more than his characters, whose vibrancy demands acknowledgement, and his gorgeous landscape descriptions . . . Part bildungsroman, part historical exploration, this novel is a study of the many islands in the South Pacific, their power struggles, abuses of power, and the perseverance to survive.' Booklist (starred review)
'From talking corpses to poetic parrots, The Wayfinder is bursting at the seams with ideas and blistering prose.' Chicago Review of Books
'How lucky we are that Adam Johnson has ignited for us this wild, epic, and utterly captivating skein of human history. His years of immersion in the Polynesian oral tradition and research into the Tu'itonga Empire shimmer through The Wayfinder at every twist, but his rollicking storytelling leads the way.' Jennifer Egan, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of A Visit from the Goon Squad and The Candy House
'The Wayfinder is a singular achievement. Everything you can ask for in a reading experience, and, because it's Adam Johnson, a little bit more. There are lines in here so pure and direct and lyrical and right, they make my teeth ache.' Stephen Graham Jones, author of The New York Times Bestseller The Buffalo Hunter Hunter
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Product notice
Paperback (UK-trade)
Dimensions
Height: 153 mm
Width: 234 mm
Thickness: 39 mm
Weight
700 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-3985-6157-1 (9781398561571)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Person
ADAM JOHNSON is the author of the short-story collection Fortune Smiles, which won the US National Book Award and the Story Prize, and The Orphan Master's Son, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. His previous books include the short-story collection Emporium and the novel Parasites Like Us. Johnson was born in South Dakota and is an enrolled member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe. He lives in San Francisco with his wife and children and teaches creative writing at Stanford University.