Call Me Ishmaelle

Moby-Dick reimagined from the perspective of a cross-dressed female sailor ''Brilliantly written... ambitious, brave, strange'' Philip Hoare ''One of the most valuable writers in the world'' Deborah Levy 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.

Product details

• Authors: Xiaolu Guo, Guo Xiaolu
• Publisher: Vintage UK
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback
• Release: 19.03.2026
• EAN: 9781529929997
• ISBN: 978-1-5299-2999-7
• No. of pages: 448
• Dimensions: 129 mm x 198 mm x 35 mm
• Subjects: Fiction > Narrative literature; Adventure, New York City, Kent, FICTION / Historical / General, FICTION / Women, Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945), Fiction: special features, Historical fiction, FICTION / Literary, FICTION / Friendship, FICTION / Sea Stories, FICTION / Small Town & Rural, Sea stories, Feminism & feminist theory, Fiction: pastiche, Feminism and feminist theory, FICTION / Feminist, FICTION / Nature & the Environment, FICTION / Adaptations & Pastiche, c 1860 to c 1869, Narrative theme: Environmental issues / the natural world, Narrative theme: Journeys and voyages, FICTION / Diversity & Multicultural, Modern and contemporary fiction: literary and general, Narrative theme: love / relationships, Narrative theme: diversity, equity, equality, inclusion