moby-dick reimagined from the perspective of a cross-dressed female sailor 'brilliantly written... ambitious, brave, strange' philip hoare 'one of the most valuable writers in the world' deborah levy 1843. ishmaelle is born in a small village on the stormy kent coast where she grows up swimming with dolphins. after her parents and infant sister die, her brother, joseph, leaves to find work as a sailor. abandoned and desperate for a life at sea, ishmaelle disguises herself as a cabin boy and travels to new york. call me ishmaelle 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. xiaolu guo has crafted a dramatically different, feminist narrative that stands alongside the original while offering a powerful exploration of nature, gender and human purpose.