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ISHMAEL

Price: £5.99
ISBN 10: 
0 553 56166 9
Number of pages: 
262
First published: 
February 1992
This edition: 
August 1993
Blurb: 

In this unforgettable novel a man and a gorilla embark on an intellectual adventure that redefines what it means to be human.

Introductory blurb: 

THE TURNER TOMORROW FELLOWSHIP
This award was created to encourage authors to write fiction that produces creative and positive solutions to global problems. Bantam Books is proud to present the winner of this prestigious fellowship, chosen from more than 2,500 submissiions from around the world, Daniel Quinn's Ishmael.

WINNER OF THE TURNER TOMORROW FELLOWSHIP

The narrator of this extraordinary tale is a man in search of truth. He answers an ad in a local newspaper from a teacher looking for serious pupils, only to find himself alone in an abandoned office with a full-grown gorilla who is nibbling delicately on a slender branch. "You are the teacher?" he asks incredulously. "I am the teacher," the gorilla replies.

Ishmael is a creature of immense wisdom and he has a story to tell, one that no human being has ever heard before. It is a story that extends backward and forward over the life span of the earth from the birth of time to a future there is still time to save. Like all great teachers, Ishmael refuses to make the lesson easy: he demands that the final illumination come from within ourselves. It begins with a simple but powerful question: Is it man's destiny to rule the world? Or is a higher destiny possible for him---one more wonderful than he has ever imagined?

On the following pages, readers respond to Ishmael . . .

Contents: 

13 chapters

Biographical note(s): 

Daniel Quinn was born in Omaha, Neraska, in 1935 and studied at St. Louis University, the University of Vienna in Austria, and Loyola University of Chicago. In 1975 he abandoned a long career in publishing in Chicago to become a free-lance writer.

The first version of the book that ultimately became Ishmael, his award-winning novel, was written in 1977 and was followed by seven more complete and distinct versions. "I was ready to admit defeat when Ted Turner announced his plans for the Turner Tomorrow Fellowship. I felt that, if I read him right, he was looking for exactly the sort of book I was struggling to write, and this encouraged me to give it one more try. I'm certainly glad I did."

Daniel Quinn lives with his wife, Rennie, in Austin, Texas, where he is at work on another novel.

Quotes about: 

"Wonderfully earnest and engaging. Think of Robert Pirsig in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance or B.F. Skinner in Walden Two." -- Los Angeles Times Book Review

"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] entrap[s] 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

"The point remains that we are killing the Earth along with ourselves and it is nearly too late to check our fate. This is reason enough for reading Ishmael." -- The Orlando Sentinel

"Deserves high marks as a serious--and all too rare--effort that is unflinchingly engaged with fundamental life-and-death concerns." -- The Atlanta Journal / Constitution

"I felt like I met a friend when reading Ishmael." -- Machelle Rogers, Friday Harbor, WA

"I read Ishmael in 24 hours. With ecstacy and agony, sobs and cheers. To say thank you doesn't even come close." -- Rachel Rosenthal, Los Angeles, CA

"Whatever else is true in my life, I am very different since I read Ishmael." -- Kathleen Sullivan, Hoffman Estates, IL

"I am overwhelmed by your intelligent and inspirational book. I wish I had a child's version to read to my son, who is only three but absorbs everything." -- Annabelle Stanley, Toronto, Canada

"I have just finished Ishmael at one sitting and am overwhelmed by it. It demands closer reading and more careful contemplation." -- James W. Watts, Mount Dora, FL

"Ishmael may be the most important book I've ever read." -- Will Wilkinson, Christianburg, VA

"I have just finished reading Ishmael, and all I can say is wow. It is a great contribution to us all, and I have been deeply moved by it." -- Michael Zajaczkowski, Woodland Hills, CA

"Reading Ishmael was an adventure, enthralling all the way." -- Dorothy Sharp, Forked River, NJ

"The end of Ishmael is a beginning, the beginning of a network." -- Larry Pomilio, Rome, NY

"Ishmael could well be the next Greatest Story Ever Told, coming as it does at the most critical time in the life of our planet." -- Chuck Ragland, Austin, TX

"Ishmael is indeed more than just a book. You have articulated what troubled our generation, and many before, I think. You have brought to life the dormant seeds of a new mind-set, one that will hopefully put us in harmony with our Earth." -- Maryann Fishler, Orlando, FL

"When I finished the last page of Ishmael I sat right up in bed and said, "Oh, thank you, Daniel Quinn!" I do not know how you did it but I am convinced that you wrote the book for me. If every reader feels that way you will have accomplished the reason for writing the book." -- Virginia Helms, St. Clairsville, OH

"In a world that lacks wisdom, you have provided a confirmation of insight and hope!" -- Jef Morris, New York City

"I will remember Ishmael. I wish I'd known him firsthand." -- Annie Natelsky, Phoenix, AZ

"Ishmael is one of the best books I have ever read! It is truly inspiring. I wish everyone would read it." -- Holly Reust, Huntington, IN

"Your book was at first charming, provocative and intellectually stimulating; then it became challenging and inspiring. I will be recommending it to everyone I know. Hopefully you will change their thinking as you did mine." -- Jay Rumanek, Montreal, Canada