A novel about apprenticeship, where the role of the questioner is a man disillusioned with the violence reigning in society, and the role of the teacher is a telepathic gorilla named Ishmael. Who better than a gorilla knows what it's like to live in captivity - that's why Ishmael so wants to help people free themselves from the cage of their own limitations. He criticizes not the people themselves, but the destructive human morality that affects all forms of life on the planet. Exploring the origins of our civilization, where he finds many examples of the organic symbiosis of man and nature, Ishmael calls not for a return to the past, but for a conscious rethinking of the system of modern views on the world. The book "Ishmael" is not a recipe for creating a new type of society, but rather a starting point for discussion on this topic. The popularity of the book in the USA and Europe is growing every year. In 1999, based on the book, the famous film “Instinct” was made.

Russian translation of the book: Daniel Quinn, Ishmael.—Bantam, 1992. The translation was made according to the second, corrected and expanded edition (Bantam, 2017).

““Ishmael” is a genuine discovery. This book will have a long life." — Ray Bradbury

“The history of man is really two different stories. The first began with the emergence of humans as a biological species millions of years ago. This story still continues in the lives of the peoples you condescendingly call primitive. The other story is only about ten thousand years old. It was started by the founders of your culture, and it is clearly about to end in disaster.”