Call Me Ishmaelle

Author Xiaolu Guo
Narrator Isabel Adomakoh Young
Publisher Random House
Publish Date 20 March 2025
Run Time 10 hours and 27 minutes
Format Audio
Genre Feminism and feminist theory, Fiction: pastiche, FXT, Historical fiction, Modern and contemporary fiction, Narrative theme: Environmental issues, Narrative theme: journeys and voyages, Narrative theme: Love and relationships, Sea stories.

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What to expect

Brought to you by Penguin.

I must work on a ship as a man… Yes, I must seek a new life, more adventurous than that of my fellows on this desolate salt marsh. 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.

Call Me Ishmaelle reimagines the epic battle between man and nature in Herman Melville’s Moby Dick from a female perspective. As the American Civil War breaks out in 1861, 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 in Polynesian harpooner, Kauri, and Taoist monk, Muzi, whose readings of the I-Ching guide their quest.

Through the bloody male violence of whaling, and the unveiling of her feminine identity, Ishmaelle realises there is a mysterious bond between herself and the mythical white whale, Moby Dick. Xiaolu Guo has crafted a dramatically different, feminist narrative that stands alongside the original while offering a powerful exploration of nature, gender and human purpose.

© Xiaolu Guo 2025 (P) Penguin Audio 2025

Critics Review

'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'

Philip Hoare

'Call Me Ishmaelle is 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 clever and original skewering of a classic

'Bold and fearless, playful and witty at the same time. ... an intensely satisfying and joyful read... resonates with Xiaolu's longstanding themes of wanting to explore the world, challenge convention, be independent and break the rules.'

Bidisha

Guo gives renewed forms of life to Melville's immense novel... [and] genuine innovation... Ishmaelle has her own story to tell, and a changing audience will want to listen

Times Literary Supplement

Guo has gender-flipped this intimidating text with bravura and style... Call Me Ishmaelle takes us on a courageous journey: it's no aping of a classic, rather a vision of a young woman sailing out to discover not a whale but her own self. And in that, it happily succeeds

Daily Telegraph

Guo's narrative style is full of energy and Call Me Ishmaelle deftly incorporates philosophical questions about our relationship with nature and gender-dysphoria into the plot, constantly tugging at the heartstrings

New Statesman

[Guo's] new book, a take on Herman Melville's Moby-Dick, doesn't disappoint... gripping

Literary Review

'It's 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.'

Marie Claire

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