Ishmael

Description

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.

Product Details

Price

$18.00 $16.74

Publisher

Bantam

Publish Date

May 01, 1995

Pages

336

Dimensions

5.2 X 7.8 X 1.0 inches | 0.65 pounds

Language

English

Type

Paperback

EAN/UPC

9780553375404

BISAC Categories:

Literary

Religious - General

Magical Realism

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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.

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

"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

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