The Wayfinder, by Adam Johnson, is probably the longest book I'll read this year. It's over 700 pages and Adams uses all the pages to tell this complex, intricate story. The book contains multitudes of characters, plots, and ideas. It is historical fiction set in Polynesia during the Tu'i Tonga's reign. To remain emperor and rule a vast number of people in any place, one must be ruthless, scheming, and focused on power. I found this book to be like Wolf Hall and Shogun. There are characters who rise by crunching the bones of others beneath them, and those who rise because they sacrifice for others. Adams employs magical realism or mythical realism to embody aspects of life. There is a talking parrot, a fan that contains the breathe of life, and special powers granted to royalty. The story is told by multiple voices: a young woman, whose name means story who seeks to find a way to help her starving people, a second prince who is being trained as a navigator, a second prince who was sent to war to keep him from becoming a threat, but now he's returned, and the most powerful female in the kingdom. This book is sweeping in its scope, but it also feels granular in its level of engagement with those who dwell in the lower levels of society.
🌊🛶🏝️
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