The Wayfinder

A Novel

De: Adam Johnson

Narrado por: 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

Reseñas de la Crítica

<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>

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.

Surprising and Mesmerizing

Absolutely love the inclusion of the Tongan and Māori languages- I really like the narrators as well, they lend so much credibility to this amazing story.

Another gem by Adam Johnson but you need the book with the audio

A great new story to add to Johnson’s diverse body of work. From The Orphan Master’s Son to Parasites Like Us to Fortune Smiles, I’ve loved them all. The Wayfinder captivates with its mystical strangeness, and interesting characters but I have to say it was very hard for me to follow the audiobook. Firstly because there are two timelines and second because all the names and places are very alien so it made it difficult to follow the shifts in time. I found the preview of the printed book with a map and the guide for all the names and places and that’s what finally helped me follow the story eventually. Otherwise it was a jumble to navigate initially. It would have been great if the audiobook came automatically with that guide.

A third of the book is in Tongan

Don't buy this book to listen to it. Buy this book hard copy and read it, so you can skip over the long and short passages in Tongan or another South Pacific language. I appreciate honoring these languages, but it makes the book interminably long and hard to follow. Also, the narrators are speaking like they are in a dream - kind of mumbling the words. Every once in a while, I realized this was most likely a great story but it was like watching a movie without subtitles.

Disappointing Narration for an Great Story

Unfortunately, the narration quality really detracts from the experience. The performers don’t sound like professionally trained voice actors, and the uneven delivery makes it difficult to stay engaged with the story. I usually listen to audiobooks at 1.25x or 1.3x speed, but this one is hard to follow even at normal pace.

The issue isn’t their accent (I actually enjoy hearing different English accents and dialects). The problem is clarity and vocal technique. Of the two narrators, the female voice shows a bit more control, but she often speaks in a whispery tone. I understand this might have been an artistic or stylistic choice, yet it unfortunately comes at the expense of intelligibility.

It’s a shame, because the story itself is genuinely captivating. I plan to continue with the written version instead of the audiobook, since the narration doesn’t do the material justice.