Ishmael cover art

Ishmael

A Novel (Ishmael Series, Book 1)

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Ishmael

By: Daniel Quinn
Narrated by: Kirby Heyborne, Morgan Freeman
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About this listen

One of the most beloved and best-selling novels of spiritual adventure ever published, Ishmael has earned a passionate following. This special 25th anniversary edition features a new foreword and afterword by the author.

“A thoughtful, fearlessly low-key novel about the role of our species on the planet...laid out for us with an originality and a clarity that few would deny.” (The New York Times Book Review)

Teacher Seeks Pupil.
Must have an earnest desire to save the world.
Apply in person.

It was just a three-line ad in the personals section, but it launched the adventure of a lifetime.

So begins an utterly unique and captivating novel. It is the story of a man who embarks on a highly provocative intellectual adventure with a gorilla - a journey of the mind and spirit that changes forever the way he sees the world and humankind’s place in it.

In Ishmael, which received the Turner Tomorrow Fellowship for the best work of fiction offering positive solutions to global problems, Daniel Quinn parses humanity’s origins and its relationship with nature, in search of an answer to this challenging question: How can we save the world from ourselves?

Explore Daniel Quinn’s spiritual Ishmael trilogy, available on audio:
Ishmael My IshmaelThe Story of B

Praise for Ishmael

“As suspenseful, inventive, and socially urgent as any fiction or nonfiction you are likely to read this or any other year.” (The Austin Chronicle)

“Before we’re halfway through this slim book...we’re in [Daniel Quinn’s] grip, we want Ishmael to teach us how to save the planet from ourselves. We want to change our lives.” (The Washington Post)

“Arthur Koestler, in an essay in which he wondered whether mankind would go the way of the dinosaur, formulated what he called the Dinosaur’s Prayer: ‘Lord, a little more time!’ Ishmael does its bit to answer that prayer and may just possibly have bought us all a little more time.” (Los Angeles Times)

©1992 Daniel Quinn (P)2021 Random House Audio
Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Magical Realism Fantasy Magic Nonfiction Solar System Adventure

Critic Reviews

“A thoughtful, fearlessly low-key novel about the role of our species on the planet...laid out for us with an originality and a clarity that few would deny.” (The New York Times Book Review)

“[Quinn entraps] us in the dialogue itself, in the sweet and terrible lucidity of Ishmael’s analysis of the human condition.... It was surely for this deep, clear persuasiveness of argument that Ishmael was given its huge prize.” (The Washington Post)

“It is as suspenseful, inventive, and socially urgent as any fiction or nonfiction book you are likely to read this or any other year.” (The Austin Chronicle)

All stars
Most relevant  
this book is incredible and should be read or listened to by everyone. a timeless master piece.

amazing

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A must read for anyone fullstop!! Visionary, frightening, wonderful all at once and made so easily consumable you just want to finish in one go.

Amazing

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A truly essential book.

This copy especially worth the credit for authors afterword at the end.

Everyone must read,

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