Call Me Ishmaelle - by Xiaolu Guo (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

"A propulsive powerhouse of a read."--Marie Claire (UK)

"Ambitious, brave, and strange."--Philip Hoare, author of Leviathan

From the National Book Critics Circle Award-winning author, a feminist reimagining of Herman Melville's classic Moby-Dick through the eyes of one inimitable woman and a diverse, swashbuckling crew

I must work on a ship as a man . . . I must find freedom on the seas.

1843. Ishmaelle is born in a small village on the stormy Kent coast where she grows up swimming with dolphins. After her parents and infant sister die, her brother, Joseph, leaves to find work as a sailor. Abandoned and desperate for a life at sea, Ishmaelle disguises herself as a cabin boy and travels to New York.

Years later, as the American Civil War breaks out, Ishmaelle boards the Nimrod, a whaling ship led by the obsessive Captain Seneca, a Black free man of heroic stature who is haunted by a tragic past. Here, she finds protectors amidst the bloody male violence of whaling and discovers a mysterious bond between herself and the white whale who claimed Seneca's leg.

Built on the bones of Melville's classic, Call Me Ishmaelle is a dynamic new tale, imbued with an eclectic crew--from a Polynesian harpooner to a Taoist Monk--and a powerful exploration of human nature, gender, man's place among the animals, and the nature of home.

Review Quotes

Praise for CALL ME ISHMAELLE:

"Infintively enjoyable (and thoroughly readable) . . . A propulsive, powerhouse of a read that doesn't just stand on its own literary feet, it does so with such skill and verve that it might - just might - have you turning to its source material in a new light."--Catherine Jarvie, Marie Claire (UK)

"Stylish . . . Guo both pays heed to the American classic and breaks out into something of her own . . . [she] has gender-flipped this intimidating text with bravura and style . . . This is a courageous journey: no aping of a classic, rather a vision of a young woman sailing out to discover not a whale but her own self."--Erica Wagner, Telegraph

"Guo's reinvention of Melville's text has significant political intent as well as playful artfulness . . . Guo, a transformative writer, seems ideally placed to explore the mythmaking story of Melville's 'grand hooded phantom' . . . Call Me Ishmaelle is presented in short, intense chapters that are interspersed with Seneca's dreamlike rantings and occasional phonetic whale sounds. Guo's unstoppable energy propels this old tale forward into new and exciting waters."--Catherine Taylor, Financial Times

"Told at fertile points of juncture between different cultural and historical identities . . . Guo gives renewed forms of life to Melville's immense novel . . . Ishmaelle has her own story to tell and a changing audience will want to listen."--Times Literary Supplement (UK)

"Full of energy . . . Call Me Ishmaelle deftly incorporates philosophical questions about our relationship with nature and gender-dysphoria into the plot, constantly tugging at the heartstrings."--Zuzanna Lachendro, New Statesman (UK)

"The story's jeopardy and heart-wrenching hardship mingle with a sense of glee as Guo challenges Melville's assumptions, as well as our own, by giving Ishmaelle a cosmopolitan cast of colleagues on deck. If you've not read the original, fear not - this rollicking escapade stands alone."--Anthony Cummins, Daily Mail (UK)

"A brilliantly written reordering of Moby-Dick, ambitious, brave, and strange, from the imagination of this natural-born storyteller. There's a cinematic, global sweep to its motion, and an unbridled energy and poetry to its dramatic words. The result is as animal and visceral and shape-shifting and subversive as the broad back of the mythic whale themselves."--Philip Hoare, author of Leviathan

"A glorious female-led retelling of a classic, combining seafaring adventure with beautifully immersive prose. Exploring gender identity, race and our relationship to the natural world, Xiaolu Guo reinvigorates Herman Melville's story while staying true to its heart."--Carmella Lowkis, author of Spitting Gold

"From the bones of Melville's Great White Whale, Xiaolu Guo has fashioned a novel as wonderful, captivating and sea-soaked, that's seems both timeless and very much of today."--Travis Elborough, author of Atlas of Forgotten Places

"A masterpiece . . . Guo's exquisite riposte to Herman Melville's great novel of madness, masculinity and killing Moby Dick . . . upends with savvy stealth the brutal and avaricious male world of the whaling ship . . . and creates a new and unboundaried way of living, which calls for a new language. So let's call this female odyssey what it is: a mistresspiece because Guo has brought something startlingly new into the world. Reading it felt like receiving the most intimate of gifts. Here is a writer who understands what it is and what it costs to be a woman and to be free."--Margie Orford, author of Water Music and Daddy's Girl

Praise for Xiaolu Guo:

"[Guo is] an astute and challenging innovator, slipping between word and image, documentary and fiction, as restlessly as between languages."--Guardian, on A Lover's Discourse

"Xiaolu Guo's literary voice remains a breath of the freshest air imaginable."--The Independent (UK), on A Lover's Discourse

"Vivid--and funny."--Wall Street Journal, on Nine Continents

"Guo writes in the audacious, restless and fragmented prose that has become her imprint: a feverish style that can be as merciless as the world she portrays . . . [A] penetrating writer."--New Statesman (UK), on Nine Continents

"When it comes to spinning light and shadow on the complexities of living, loving and language, Xiaolu Guo is one of the most valuable writers in the world."--Deborah Levy, on Radical

About the Author