# Call Me Ishmaelle

Canonical: https://www.bookquiver.com/xiaolu-guo/call-me-ishmaelle/9781529930009

![Call Me Ishmaelle](https://quivercdn.com/covers/vintage-digital/xiaolu-guo/call-me-ishmaelle_978-15-2993-000-9-6a88663c.webp?v=2026-09-29%2005%3A25%3A44)

- Book: [Call Me Ishmaelle](https://www.bookquiver.com/xiaolu-guo/call-me-ishmaelle) ([Call Me Ishmaelle.md](https://www.bookquiver.com/xiaolu-guo/call-me-ishmaelle.md))
- Authors: [Xiaolu Guo](https://www.bookquiver.com/xiaolu-guo)
- Publisher: vintage_digital
- Medium: ebook
- ISBN: 978-15-2993-000-9
- Published: 2025-03-20
- Language: en_GB
- Binding: E-book

## Description

‘A smart gender-flipped version of Moby Dick ’ Daily Telegraph ‘A clever and original skewering of a classic’ i News ‘A brilliantly written reordering of Moby-Dick’ Philip Hoare Call Me Ishmaelle reimagines the epic battle between man and nature in Herman Melville’s Moby Dick from a female perspective – perfect for fans Madeline Miller, Percival Everett and Barbara Kingsolver In 1843, in a small village on the stormy Kent coast, Ishmaelle is born. She grows up swimming with dolphins and eventually – desperate for a life at sea – she disguises herself as a cabin boy and travels to New York. As the American Civil War breaks out, Ishmaelle boards 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 mythical white whale Moby Dick… ‘One of the most valuable writers in the world’ Deborah Levy ‘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 ‘An astonishingly ambitious undertaking . . . you’re in the hands of a genuine storyteller’ New York Times Book Review