The Wayfinder

Johnson, the Pulitzer-winning author of The Orphan Master’s Son, unfolds a majestic saga of political unrest in the South Pacific and a girl’s quest to save her people. It begins during the reign of the Tu‘i Tonga Empire, sometime in the Middle Ages, with the arrival of two strangers from Tongatapu, the empire’s seat, to the remote and peaceful Bird Island, where the people are about to starve from lack of resources. The unbidden travelers are two younger sons of the recently deceased Tongan king, on a mission to restore order after their treacherous uncle’s rise to power. In exchange for exclusive access to food sources on a sacred royal island, Korero and her people agree to join Tonga’s struggle. The sweeping plot is packed with harrowing depictions of war’s moral abyss and heart-wrenching lovers’ tales, most touchingly in a twisty Shakespearean development involving the princes’ oldest brother and his beloved. Through it all, Johnson poignantly captures how the characters’ culture is forged by their oral history tradition: “That’s why stories are sacred,” Korero tells a fellow islander, explaining why it’s important to remember that they descended from slaves and once faced war themselves. “That’s why we preserve and repeat them. That’s why we’re careful never to let one slip through our fingers.” This is remarkable. Agent: Warren Frazier, John Hawkins & Assoc. (Oct.)