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Call Me Ishmaelle
A KIRKUS BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR"A propulsive powerhouse of a read."--Marie Claire (UK)"Ambitious, brave, and strange."--Philip...
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A KIRKUS BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR
"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.
Author: Xiaolu Guo
Publisher: Grove Press, Black Cat
Published: 01/06/2026
Pages: 448
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.95lbs
Size: 8.00h x 5.05w x 1.40d
ISBN: 9780802166494
Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 11/03/2025
Booklist 11/01/2025
Kirkus Reviews 11/15/2025
About the Author
Xiaolu Guo is the award-winning author of Village of Stone, A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers, Twenty Fragments of a Ravenous Youth, I Am China, A Lover's Discourse, Nine Continents, and Radical. She lives in London.
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