Ishmael

MORE THAN ONE MILLION COPIES IN PRINT The narrator of this extraordinary tale is a man in search for truth. He answers an ad in a local newspaper from a teacher looking for serious pupils, only to find himself alone in an abandoned 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, one that no other human being has ever heard. It is a story that extends backward and forward over the lifespan of the earth from the birth of time to a future there is still time to save. Like all great teachers, Ishmael refuses to make the lesson easy; he demands the final illumination to come from within ourselves. Is it man's destiny to rule the world? Or is it a higher destiny possible for him—one more wonderful than he has ever imagined?

“"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”

"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

Daniel Quinn is the author of "Ishmael, Providence: The Story of a Fifty-Year Vision Quest," and "The Story of B" and co-author
(with Tom Whalen) of "A Newcomer's Guide to the Afterlife."

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 Ishmael, an utterly unique and captivating novel that has earned a large and passionate following among readers and critics alike-one of the most beloved and bestselling novels of spiritual adventure ever published.

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