Ishmael: A Novel

· Ishmael Series Book 1 · Penguin Random House Audio · Narrated by Kirby Heyborne and Morgan Freeman
4.7
11 reviews
Audiobook
8 hr 43 min
Unabridged
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About this audiobook

One of the most beloved and bestselling novels of spiritual adventure ever published, Ishmael has earned a passionate following. This special twenty-fifth 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 ISHMAEL • THE 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

Ratings and reviews

4.7
11 reviews
Joshua Wolf
September 2, 2024
almost 3 decades after my first of many readings of Ishmael, I decided to give an audio version a try. every bit as profound and engaging as I've found the text each time I've picked it up. there are books by Daniel Quinn I love more. but, when considering my 50+ years as a reader, I can honestly say that my discovery of Ishmael in the 90s forever changed what I thought a book could be
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Shelley Dearborn
June 24, 2023
I read this book in College and had to write a literary analysis of my interpretation of what the author was trying to portray after each paragraph. This book was and has continued to be the one that has had the most meaning and depth , touching me deeply
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