The PRETTY GOOD BOOK CLUB has selected CALL ME ISHMAELLE by Xiaolu Guo as their June bookclub read! Our next meeting will be Thursday, June 11th at 6pm. Join us!

Call Me Ishmaelle: A New York Times Book Review Editors' Pick

“Well worth your time . . . By adding in new characters while adhering to the original story, the author creates something new, strange and thrilling.”—Los Angeles Times

“An astonishingly ambitious undertaking . . . you’re in the hands of a genuine storyteller.”—New York Times Book Review

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