The Names of the New World

Title: The Names of the New World
Author: Kawai Strong Washburn
ISBN: 9780374619701
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Published: 2026
Binding: Hardcover
Language: English
Number of Pages: 448
Condition Note: New from the publisher
Publisher Description:

"An epic account of the fight for human dignity and an intimate, unforgettable story of love, ambition, and resilience." --Adam Johnson, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Wayfinder

The highly anticipated second novel from the award-winning author Kawai Strong Washburn: an extraordinary saga of resilience and ambition in the face of a chaotic world.

A ferocious superstorm strikes Minneapolis, obliterating large swaths of the city in a matter of minutes. In the storm's wake, three people forge an unlikely bond that will shape their lives for the next twenty-five years: Naomi, a lawyer by day and an amateur MMA fighter by night, is a Pacific Islander transplanted to the Midwest for her less-than-satisfying career; Amaré, an up-by-the-bootstraps investment banker, has grand designs for all the money he's about to make; and Raheem is a diesel mechanic, nearly paralyzed by the storm and struggling to save his business.

When Naomi recognizes that energy companies are responsible for the climate-induced superstorm--and the many more to come, potentially dooming her island homeland--she initiates a bitter legal battle, one that culminates in her appointment to a powerful political office in DC with the potential to prevent future tragedies. Yet her rise risks a burgeoning romance with Amaré, whose own ambitions test Naomi's ethical limits, while Raheem's fate as a blue-collar business owner becomes dependent on the couple's growing power.

Following his much-loved debut, Sharks in the Time of Saviors, Kawai Strong Washburn turns his remarkable gift of mythic sight to the oceans and landscapes we so often overlook in the name of progress. Ranging from the American Midwest to the nation's halls of power, to islands across the Pacific, The Names of the New World is a startling, energetic, and optimistic vision of how we'll live in this era of overwhelming change.