The Names of the New World: A Novel by Kawai Strong WashburnPublication Date: October 6, 2026
Pages: 448
Rating: ★★★★
Source: From the Publisher
Genre: Fiction / Literary
Publisher: Farrar Straus and Giroux / Macmillan
Synopsis:
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 swaths of the city in minutes. In its wake, three people forge an unlikely bond that will shape their lives for the next twenty-five years: Naomi, a lawyer and an amateur MMA fighter, is a Pacific Islander transplanted to the Midwest for her less-than-satisfying career; Amaré, an investment banker, has grand designs for all the money he’s about to make; and Raheem, a diesel mechanic, is nearly paralyzed by the storm and struggles 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 small business owner depends on the couple’s growing power.
Following his much-loved debut, Kawai Strong Washburn turns his 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.
REVIEW
Kawai Strong Washburn returns in The Names of the New World with an extraordinary, cinematic saga of resilience in a world coming apart faster than we planned for. In the not-so-distant future, an unprecedented superstorm, an ultra derecho, strikes Minneapolis with a ferocity the world has never seen. Lives are lost, neighbourhoods are destroyed, and communities are upended. This is the new normal, or rather the new new normal, and Washburn drops us right into the wind.
In the storm’s wake, three strangers collide: Naomi and Amar, whose lives become forever entwined in Minneapolis, and Raheem, a diesel delivery employee whose Range Rover is tossed like a toy. Washburn, who won the PEN/Hemingway for Sharks in the Time of Saviours, follows them across two decades, from the American Midwest to the nation’s halls of power to islands across the Pacific. What could have been just another climate disaster novel becomes something more intimate: an epic account of the fight for human dignity and an unforgettable story of love, ambition, and what it means to rebuild.
The scope is huge, but the writing stays grounded and energetic. Washburn has a gift for making systemic collapse feel personal. Some of the middle sections sprawl as he tracks all three lives through hundreds of other disasters unfolding each year, but the optimism that threads through it is what stayed with me. This isn’t dystopia for despair’s sake; it’s a startling vision of how to live and keep loving people in an era of overwhelming change.
A powerful, timely second novel that feels both urgent and deeply human. As one character reflects, “We keep naming the new world as if names will make it stay still.” Sweeping, ambitious, and full of heart, this is climate fiction that never forgets the people inside the storm.
Disclaimer: Links on this page may contain affiliate links, and purchasing a copy through them may generate a small commission for the site owner. A free copy of this book was provided by Farrar, Straus and Giroux via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
