The Wayfinder, by award-winning author Adam Johnson, is an epic, sweeping historical novel set in the Polynesian islands of the South Pacific during the height of the Tu'i Tonga Empire.

At its heart is Kōrero, a young girl chosen to save her people from the brink of starvation. With the grandeur of Wolf Hall, Shogun, and War and Peace, The Wayfinder immerses readers in a world untouched by Western influence, evoking the lost art of oral storytelling. In this monumental literary work, Johnson explores themes of indigeneity, ecological balance, and the resilience of humanity in the face of scarcity, marking the novel as a profound meditation on both individual and cultural legacy.

Johnson is the author of Fortune Smiles, winner of the National Book Award, and The Orphan Master’s Son, winner of the Pulitzer Prize. His other awards include a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Whiting Award, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, and a Stegner Fellowship. Born in South Dakota, Johnson is an enrolled member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe and teaches creative writing at Stanford University.