Ishmael

Daniel Quinn

Bantam/Turner Book, 1995 - Fiction - 263 pages

When Bantam Books first published "Ishmael," a cult was born. Winner of the Turner Tomorrow Award -- a prize for fiction that offered solutions to global problems -- it was an utterly unique story that earned raves from readers and critics alike. By the time the mass market paperback edition of this novel was published last year, word was spreading like wildfire. Now this irresistible novel of a spiritual adventure is available in trade paperback for the first time ever. 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 abandonded 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.... As readers everywhere seek out books that offer answers to their burning questions about spirituality, the popularity of this remarkable novel continues to grow at an astounding pace.

"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."

"Wonderfully eamest 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."

Daniel Quinn lives in Austin, Texas.

What people are saying

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - SoubhiKiewiet - www.librarything.com

I come back to this book over and over. A beautiful story with depth and imagination, as well as questions and a different point of view. If you question humanity's right to rule this world, find religion disturbing, or just feel that something's wrong with society, this book is for you.

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - greeniezona - LibraryThing

I don't care how hoky anyone thinks this book is, it set my brain on fire when I first read it. One of the few books I will be able to always tell you just when and where I read it: in a single day on ...

Contents

• I: 3
• II: 31
• III: 33

About the author

Daniel Quinn grew up in Omaha, Nebraska, and studied at St. Louis University, the University of Vienna, and Loyola University of Chicago. He worked in Chicago-area publishing for twenty years before beginning work on the book for which he is best known, Ishmael. In 1991, this book was chosen from among some 2,500 international entrants in the Turner Tomorrow competition to win the half-million dollar prize for a novel offering "creative and positive solutions to global problems." It has subsequently sold more than a million copies in English, is available in some thirty languages, and has been used in high schools and colleges worldwide in courses as varied as philosophy, geography, ecology, archaeology, history, biology, zoology, anthropology, political science, economics, and sociology. Subsequent works include Providence, The Story of B, My Ishmael: A Sequel, Beyond Civilization, After Dachau, The Holy, At Woomeroo, The Invisibility of Success, and The Teachings. Daniel Quinn died in 2018.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Ishmael; Volume 1 of Ishmael Series
• Author: Daniel Quinn
• Edition: reprint, reissue
• Publisher: Bantam/Turner Book, 1995
• ISBN: 0553375407, 9780553375404
• Length: 263 pages
• Subjects: Fiction / Fantasy / General; Fiction / Literary; Fiction / Psychological