Ishmael

An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit

By: Daniel Quinn

Narrated by: Anthony Heald

Length: 2 hrs and 54 mins

Publisher's summary

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: 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)

©1992 Daniel Quinn (P)1995 Bantam Doubleday Dell Audio Publishing, Bantam Doubleday Dell Audio Publishing, A Division of Random House Inc.

Critic reviews

“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)

“[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)

My favorite book of all time!

My favorite book of all time! A must read for every human, and non human alike. The performance of this read is lacking though. Read the book before you listen to this. It may ruin the book for you completely if you don't. The book is meant for you to assume the role of the student, and listening to someone else read it takes that away completely.

So Inspiring

extremely inspiring for those hard existential questions we must all face at some point in our lives. Beautifully written with philosophical pondering that are elementary enough for the average person to understand.

share this story with 100 people

who shall in turn, do the same. that is the way it is done.

Great refreshing truly knowledgeable knowledge gai

man belongs to the good thego od the good theg ood the good earth the good the good the good

Interesting and smart

I enjoyed this book from start to finish. It touches on some important issues. I loved reading this book.

Excellent!

Read the paperback and listened to the audio. Enjoyed both! Entertaining as well as intellectually stimulating. Absolutely recommend this book.

A champion of the ecological revolution!

Daniel Quinn spins an eye opening tale leading readers to reconcile the destructive nature of humans towards the planet that created them. A must read for anyone willing to question the survival of humanity at its current pace.

Every human should read this book as soon as possible

I’ve gifted three of these. 97 to go. Please read this as soon as possible. Quite possibly one of the most important books ever written.

One of the most important books of our time..

I don't read a lot of books, but as soon as I heard about what Ishmael was about, I already knew it was one I needed to read immediately.

And so I did. Many times now. Probably ~10 in either audio or paperback. It's one of those books that hits you like a ton of bricks when you first read it, then calls out to your soul every so often at certain times in your life after that.

Its one of those timeless stories, that speaks to a place in you that isn't fully describable by rational thought and ideas. The idea that we as a humans are living in a way that isn't in alignment with divine nature can't really be conceptualized in any meaningful way (which is part of the genius behind how the author structures the story). The truth of what the author is trying to convey has to be felt, absorbed and then expressed in order for the full meaning to be understood.

In this way this book is less of a text and more of a beakon of light. It's a dynamic guide to a brighter future should we care to listen and Inner - stand. There is no one right way to live, yet at the same time there are many wrong ways to live that will inevitably lead to the destruction of our civilization as we know it. It's all about degrees, and making a gradual shift to a more harmonious way of being.

Dear people who read self help books,

Put down the self help book and read this book instead. You might feel more validated than ever.