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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.
What are you reading this week? And what did you think of last week’s books? (5/21/2026)
Oh, and also The Wayfinder by Adam Johnson, an epic tale imagining ancient Tonga, and This Is Where The Serpent Lies by Daniyal Mueenuddin, a story of contemporary feudal Pakistan.
-Michelle_H
2026 first quarter besties
...young Sicilians, at the end of the Peloponnesian War, who get the Athenian prisoners being held in a quarry to put on a production of Medea! Imagine! THE WAYFINDER by Adam Johnson Yes, it's 700 pages, but if you want to get sucked into a completely different world – ancient Tonga and Fiji – this is a wonderful, absorbing tale....
-Michelle_H
"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)
"[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...A book stuffed with revelations while keeping many secrets." —Kirkus Reviews
"A powerful and original epic...Deadly politics, tragic romance and dangerous sea journeys keep the drama at a spirited boil." ―New York Times
"Johnson is a master builder of fictive worlds. The Wayfinder is a story of cultural erasure wrapped into a fantastical fable." ―Los Angeles Times
"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 New York Times bestseller The Buffalo Hunter Hunter
This information about The Wayfinder was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Adam Johnson is the author of Fortune Smiles, which won the National Book Award and the Story Prize, and The Orphan Master's Son, which won the Pulitzer Prize, the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, and the California Book Award. 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.
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