Adam Johnson – författare

Named one of Ten Best Books of 2025 by The Wall Street JournalNamed one of Ten Best Books of 2025 by The Washington PostNamed a Best Novel of 2025 by NPR and Publishers WeeklyNamed a Best Historical Novel of 2025 by The New York Times"e;A powerful and original epic . . . Deadly politics, tragic romance and dangerous sea journeys keep the drama at a spirited boil."e;-The New York Times"e;An epic of extraordinary abundance . . . modern and mythological . . . wondrous enough to endure."e;-The Wall Street Journal"e;An epic that feels less created than unearthed . . . The Wayfinder is sui generis-a tapestry of South Pacific myth, archetypal quest, political allegory, environmental jeremiad and feminist revision that feels both ancient and impossibly relevant."e;-The Washington PostTalking corpses, poetic parrots, and a fan that wafts the breath of life-this is the world young Korero 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 Korero 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 Korero 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 Korero 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 Shogun, 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.

Selections by Bryan Stevenson, Lesley Nneka Arimah, Daniel Alarcon, Rebecca Curtis, Claudia Rankine, Paul Tough, Wells Tower, and more!For a year, a group of high school students met at a publishing house in San Francisco every Monday night to read literary magazines, chapbooks, graphic novels, and countless articles. This committee was assisted by a group of students that met in the basement of a robot shop in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Together, and under the guidance of guest editor Adam Johnson—New York Times-bestselling author and winner of both a Pulitzer Prize and a National Book Award—they selected the contents of The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2015. The writing in this book is very essential, if not required, like visiting the Louvre if you’re in Paris. In any case, nothing in this book takes place in Paris, as far as we can recall, but it does feature an elephant hunt, the fall of a reality-TV star, a walk through Ethiopia, and much more. Featured writers include: LESLEY NNEKA ARIMAH, DANIEL ALARCÓN, BOX BROWN, REBECCA CURTIS, VICTOR LODATO, CLAUDIA RANKINE, PAUL SALOPEK, PAUL TOUGH, WELLS TOWER, SHEILA HETI, HEIDI JULAVITS, LEANNE SHARPTON, TOM McALLISTER, INES FERNANDEZ MORENO, and othersPraise for the series“Lively, eclectic and surprising.” —Minneapolis Star Tribune“Category-defying [and] engaging.” —Kirkus Reviews“A gift . . . One wonders how the world might be different if works in The Best American Nonrequired Reading were indeed required.” —USA Today

The award-winning and New York Times bestselling novel: a dark and witty story of the rise of a young orphan in the surreal and tyrannical regime of North Korea.'You know you are in the hands of someone who can tell a story. Fantastic' ZADIE SMITH'A stunning feat of imagination' STEPHEN KINGWINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE FOR FICTIONNEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERNATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST------Young Pak Jun Do is convinced he is special. He knows he must be the unique son of the master of the orphanage, and definitely not some kid dumped by his parents. Surely it was obvious from the way his father singled him out for regular beating?He finds his calling when he is picked as a spy and kidnapper for his nation, the glorious Democratic Republic of North Korea.He knows he must find his true love, Sun Moon, the greatest opera star who ever lived, before it’s too late.He knows he’s not like the other prisoners in the camp.He’s going to get out soon.Isn't he?This hilarious, dark literary epic of a young boy's rise in North Korea from orphan to high-ranking officer won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and was shortlisted for the National Book Award.Adam Johnson is working on a new work of fiction. 'An addictive novel of daring ingenuity' DAVID MITCHELL'Excavates the very meaning of life' NEW YORK TIMES

The "remarkable" (The New Yorker) debut story collection by the author of The Orphan Master''s Son (winner of the 2013 Pulitzer Prize) and the story collection Fortune Smiles (winner of the 2015 National Book Award) An ATF raid, a moonshot gone wrong, a busload of female cancer victims determined to live life to the fullest—these are the compelling terrains Adam Johnson explores in his electrifying debut collection. A lovesick teenage Cajun girl, a gay Canadian astrophysicist, a teenage sniper on the LAPD payroll, a post-apocalyptic bulletproof-vest salesman—each seeks connection and meaning in landscapes made uncertain by the voids that parents and lovers should fill. With imaginative grace and verbal acuity, Johnson is satirical without being cold, clever without being cloying, and heartbreaking without being sentimental. He shreds the veneer of our media-saturated, self-help society, revealing the lonely isolation that binds us all together.

The debut novel by the author of The Orphan Master''s Son (winner of the 2013 Pulitzer Prize) and the story collection Fortune Smiles (winner of the 2015 National Book Award) Hailed as "remarkable" by the New Yorker, Emporium earned Adam Johnson comparisons to Kurt Vonnegut and T.C. Boyle. In his acclaimed first novel, Parasites Like Us, Johnson takes us on an enthralling journey through memory, time, and the cost of mankind''s quest for its own past.

Anthropologist Hank Hannah has just illegally exhumed an ancient American burial site and winds up in jail. But the law will soon be the least of his worries. For, buried beside the bones, a timeless menace awaits that will set the modern world back twelve thousand years and send Hannah on a quest to save that which is dearest to him. A brilliantly evocative apocalyptic adventure told with Adam Johnson''s distinctive dark humor, Parasites Like Us is a thrilling tale of mankind on the brink of extinction.

From the author of The Orphan Master’s Son, winner of the Pulitzer Prize, and Fortune Smiles, winner of the US National Book Award, an epic masterpiece named one of ‘Ten Best Books of 2025’ by the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post‘Awesome… This astonishing novel, at once so primeval and so sophisticated, pulses with the same hopes and terrors that first pricked our imaginations around a fire as the sun set - a tapestry of South Pacific myth, archetypal quest, political allegory, environmental jeremiad and feminist revision that feels both ancient and impossibly relevant.’ Washington Post‘An epic of extraordinary abundance… modern and mythological… wondrous enough to endure’ Wall Street JournalWhen a mysterious visitor lands on her island, a place so remote its inhabitants have forgotten the word for stranger, young Kōrero finds herself thrust into a terrifying and magical world. 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 - Tonga is an empire at war and on the verge of collapse, a place where brains are regularly liberated from skulls and souls may become trapped in coconuts.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, Pulitzer Prizewinning 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.

From the author of The Orphan Master’s Son, winner of the Pulitzer Prize, and Fortune Smiles, winner of the US National Book Award, an epic masterpiece named one of ‘Ten Best Books of 2025’ by the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post‘Awesome… This astonishing novel, at once so primeval and so sophisticated, pulses with the same hopes and terrors that first pricked our imaginations around a fire as the sun set - a tapestry of South Pacific myth, archetypal quest, political allegory, environmental jeremiad and feminist revision that feels both ancient and impossibly relevant.’ Washington Post‘An epic of extraordinary abundance… modern and mythological… wondrous enough to endure’ Wall Street JournalWhen a mysterious visitor lands on her island, a place so remote its inhabitants have forgotten the word for stranger, young Kōrero finds herself thrust into a terrifying and magical world. 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 - Tonga is an empire at war and on the verge of collapse, a place where brains are regularly liberated from skulls and souls may become trapped in coconuts.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, Pulitzer Prizewinning 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.

The award-winning and New York Times bestselling novel: a dark and witty story of the rise of a young orphan in the surreal and tyrannical regime of North Korea.'You know you are in the hands of someone who can tell a story. Fantastic' ZADIE SMITH'A stunning feat of imagination' STEPHEN KINGWINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE FOR FICTIONNEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERNATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST------Young Pak Jun Do is convinced he is special. He knows he must be the unique son of the master of the orphanage, and definitely not some kid dumped by his parents. Surely it was obvious from the way his father singled him out for regular beating?He finds his calling when he is picked as a spy and kidnapper for his nation, the glorious Democratic Republic of North Korea.He knows he must find his true love, Sun Moon, the greatest opera star who ever lived, before it’s too late.He knows he’s not like the other prisoners in the camp.He’s going to get out soon.Isn't he?This hilarious, dark literary epic of a young boy's rise in North Korea from orphan to high-ranking officer won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and was shortlisted for the National Book Award.Adam Johnson is working on a new work of fiction. 'An addictive novel of daring ingenuity' DAVID MITCHELL'Excavates the very meaning of life' NEW YORK TIMES

*The debut novel by the author of THE ORPHAN MASTER'S SON: winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction 2013After trashing his cherry '72 Corvette, illegally breaking into an ancient burial site, and snacking on 12,000-year-old popcorn, Hank Hannah finds that he's inadvertently unleashed the apocalypse. Hank, a professor of anthropology back in the days when there were still co-eds to ogle and now one of only twelve humans still alive on earth, decides to record the last days of human civilization for whomever - or whatever - might replace us.

* By the winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction 2013 and the EFG/Sunday Times Best Short Story Award 2014* 'An idiosyncratic and compelling voice' Michiko Kakutani, New York TimesAn ATF raid, a moonshot gone wrong, a busload of female cancer victims determined to live life to the fullest - these are some of the compelling themes explored in this funny, sad, brilliantly bizarre debut collection. A lovesick teenage Cajun girl, a gay astrophysicist, a teenage sniper on Los Angeles police payroll, a post apocalyptic bulletproof-vest salesman - each seeks connection and meaning in landscapes made uncertain by the voids parents and lovers should fill.

WINNER OF THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FOR FICTION 2015WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE FOR FICTION 2013WINNER OF THE SUNDAY TIMES EFG SHORT STORY AWARD 2014By the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction winner of THE ORPHAN MASTER'S SON - for fans of international literary fiction, especially Hanya Yanigahara, Jonathan Franzen and Anthony Doerr.'Unputdownable is an overused word, but at their best these stories are completely gripping.' Sunday Times'Ironic, witty, super-intelligent' - The Times'Terrific. Shows exactly why Johnson is rated as one of the hottest American writers of his generation' Mail on SundayAdam Johnson takes you into the minds of characters you never thought you would meet – a former Stasi prison warden in denial of his past, a refugee from North Korea unsettled by his new freedom, a UPS driver in hurricane-torn Louisiana looking for the mother of his son. These are tales of love and loss, natural disasters, the influence of technology, and how the political shapes the personal. Tender, wry, utterly compelling, they show us humanity where you might least expect it.