“The work of Xiaolu Guo both plays with the globalization of literature and rebukes it.” The New York Review of Books ​​

What happens when race, identity and gender collide at sea? Xiaolu Guo’s Call Me Ishmaelle is a landmark reimagining of Moby Dick from the perspective of a cross-dressing female sailor.

Written with her trademark wit, imagination and ambition, Call Me Ishmaelle reimagines the epic battle between man and nature in Herman Melville’s Moby Dick from a female perspective. 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.

Since moving to Britain from China in 2002, Xiaolu Guo’s books include Village of Stone, shortlisted for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize; A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers, shortlisted for the Orange Prize; and A Lover’s Discourse, shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize 2020.

Duration: 1 hour