Michael Fomenko is familiar with adversity. But when he gets shut out of the Commonwealth Games for financial and political reasons at the ripe age of 20, he questions everything.

Setting a new course for himself, he dreams of a feat that will require unimaginable determination. With no companions or guides, he will paddle a dugout canoe over 1,000 nautical kilometers from Cairns, Australia, to Dutch, New Guinea. As if the grueling physical effort, saltwater crocs, storms, and jagged coral reef aren’t enough of a challenge, he makes an unexpected foe: the Australian government.

In 1950s Australia, a White man living in the bush "like an Aboriginal" was deemed threatening to social order. Fixated on making an example of Michael, the police and press will stop at nothing to hinder him from completing his legendary voyage. The King of the Coral Sea follows the many chapters of Michael’s life. As a toddler, he escaped communist Russia, and then crossed Manchuria on foot with his family. As a young man, he captured the attention of a country with his solo journey. As an old man, he was known simply as Tarzan to those around him in Queensland. Much of his life was exaggerated, and his darkest years were little known. This is an astonishing tale of daring and courage—the untold story of a man who was ahead of his time.