My Ishmael

By Daniel Quinn,

Book cover of My Ishmael

Book description

Daniel Quinn's Ishmael was the winner of the Turner Tomorrow Fellowship, a prize honoring fiction that offers creative and positive solutions to global problems.  This extraordinary novel has become an underground bestseller and a testament for a burgeoning spiritual movement.  Mr. Quinn's new novel is a companion piece--not a story…

When you buy books, we may earn a commission that helps keep our lights on (or join the rebellion as a member).

Why read it?

1 author picked My Ishmael as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

My Ishmael is a book that got my mind thinking. It raises many questions about how we live and whether that is the best way to live.

I enjoyed how these questions are explored through a relationship between a child and a gorilla as it holds the reader in a place of curiosity, as opposed to judgment. This approach sits well with my values and makes it an easy read. One of my favorite quotes is “The only way you can be insulated from harm is by not existing, and that's no way to live.”

If you love My Ishmael...

Ad

Book cover of The Ballad of Falling Rock

The Ballad of Falling Rock by Jordan Dotson,

Truth told, folks still ask if Saul Crabtree sold his soul for the perfect voice. If he sold it to angels or devils. A Bristol newspaper once asked: “Are his love songs closer to heaven than dying?” Others wonder how he wrote a song so sad, everyone who heard it…

Want books like My Ishmael?

Our community of 12,000+ authors has personally recommended 100 books like My Ishmael.

Browse books like My Ishmael

Book cover of Man’s Search for Meaning
Book cover of The Midnight Library
Book cover of Braving the Wilderness: The Quest for True Belonging and the Courage to Stand Alone

Share your top 3 reads of 2024!

And get a beautiful page showing off your 3 favorite reads.

1,889

readers submitted
so far, will you?

Ad

📚 If you like My Ishmael, you might also like...

Book cover of Resting Places

Resting Places by Michael C. White,

Resting Places follows one woman’s journey after the devastating news of her son’s death. Elizabeth ekes out a lonely and strained relationship with her husband while trying to lose her grief in alcohol. A chance meeting with a man on the side of the road spurs her to travel cross-country…

Book cover of The Gates of Polished Horn

The Gates of Polished Horn by Mark A. Rayner,

What happens when you’re face-to-face with a truth that shakes you? Do you accept it, or pretend it was never there?

Award-winning author Mark A. Rayner smudges the lines between realist and fabulist, literary and speculative in this collection of stories that examines this question—what Homer called passing through The…

5 book lists we think you will like!

Interested in gorillas, globalization, and nature?

Gorillas 13 books
Globalization 116 books
Nature 160 books