Call Me Ishmaelle

Xiaolu Guo, author of the acclaimed A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers, joins us with her new novel, Call Me Ishmaelle, a landmark reimagining of Moby Dick from the perspective of a cross-dressing female sailor.

Xiaolu talks to author and owner of Kemptown Books, Cathy Hayward, about this dramatically different, feminist narrative that stands alongside the original while offering a powerful exploration of nature, gender and human purpose.

The novel reimagines the epic battle between man and nature in Herman Melville’s Moby Dick from a female perspective. As the American Civil War breaks out in 1861, Ishmaelle boards the Nimrod, a whaling ship led by the obsessive Captain Seneca, a Black free man of heroic stature who is haunted by a tragic past. Here, she finds protectors in Polynesian harpooner, Kauri, and Taoist monk, Muzi, whose readings of the I-Ching guide their quest. 

Through the bloody male violence of whaling, and the unveiling of her feminine identity, Ishmaelle realises there is a mysterious bond between herself and the mythical white whale, Moby Dick.