The Wayfinder

A Novel

By: Adam Johnson

Narrated by: Caleb Teaupa, Waikamania Seve

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 Kōrero 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 Kōrero 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 Kōrero 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 Kōrero 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 Shōgun, 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.

A Macmillan Audio production from MCD Books

Critic reviews

<p>"A majestic saga of political unrest in the South Pacific and a girl’s quest to save her people. . . This is remarkable."<br><b>—<i>Publishers Weekly</i> (starred review)</b><br><br>“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 <i>The Wayfinder</i> at every twist, but his rollicking storytelling leads the way.” <br><b>—Jennifer Egan, Pulitzer Prize winning author of <i>A Visit from the Goon Squad</i> and <i>The Candy House</i></b><br><br>"<i>The Wayfinder</i> 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."<br><b>—Stephen Graham Jones, author of<i> The New York Times </i>Bestseller <i>The Buffalo Hunter Hunter</i></b><br><br>"Epic in every sense of the word, this is a high wire act that burns the net below. Epic in that it swings with the same music in great works from Gilgamesh on down. Epic in scope that races across time and space until one is no different from the other. Epic in that we are swept up in a journey where not even the reader returns. In <i>The Wayfinder</i> myth becomes fact, magic becomes wisdom, poetry is in the mouths of birds, and a young girl sets out to remake the world." <br><b>—Marlon James, Booker Prize winning author of <i>Moon Witch, Spider King</i></b></p>

Epic novel about the human condition

Like the author's last novel, The Orphan Master's Son, you'll love this epic story about the human condition. It takes place in on and around the island of Tonga which is warring with Fisi (Fiji) where the king's second son, a Wayfinder, must find his own destiny. The main protagonist though is a girl from a depleted island whose inhabitants are trying to survive depopulation. Together, the story weaves in royal power struggles, famines, climate change, and even comic relief in the form of a parrot who thinks he's a human philosopher!

Beautiful language

I'm so glad I got to listen to this epic tale, I would have completely missed the lyrical cadence if I had tried to make it up in my head. Beautiful story, beautiful performance.

Superb!

Adam Johnson has crafted a masterpiece, an exquisite tale of survival and preservation, of love and connections across communities, time and space. This reading enhances and extends the work. What a pleasure to hear Tongan and Fijian woven through - a treat taking me back to my years in the Pacific in the early 1990s.

A strange passage through melodious language

A strange passage through melodious language. It captures a strong feeling of the pacific islands. The reliance on much local language can make listening confusing. The overall impression OSS of a sense of beauty. The plot is not spellbinding. The characters are foreign seeming but well drawn. Much time in outrigger canoes.

Commitment to cultural realism of Polynesia.

Like genera of magical realism, the wayfarer is told from the perspective of the people whose story it is. This includes the spiritual and religious beliefs. Doesn’t make them feel real to us rather than made up. It touches one’s soul. Now I’m going to read the book.