Call Me Ishmaelle by Xiaolu Guo
“Call me Ishmael”, the opening line of Herman Melville’s Moby Dick,commands the reader. In her exciting feminist reimagining of the classic, the 2020 Goldsmith’s Prize shortlisted author Xiaolu Guo instructs the reader to call the narrator Ishmaelle.
Guo’s plot follows a similar trajectory to the original. The cast is slightly changed; Captain Ahab becomes Captain Seneca and rather than sailing on the Pequod, Ishmaelle finds herself on the Nimrod. But the biggest change of all is that Ishmaelle is a cross-dressing female sailor. Abandoned and desperate for a different life than offered by the small village on Kent’s coast, Ishmaelle forfeits her 17-year-old girl’s identity for that of a 15-year-old boy, Ishmael, and sails to New York before boarding a whaling ship.
Guo’s narrative style is full of energy and Call Me Ishmaelle deftly incorporates philosophical questions about our relationship with nature and gender-dysphoria into the plot, constantly tugging at the heartstrings. The dangers of being a woman are ultimately met with Ishmaelle’s silent resignation: “You are a woman and this kind of thing was bound to happen, sooner or later.”
By Zuzanna Lachendro
Chatto & Windus, 448pp, £18.99. Buy this book
Taking Manhattan by Russell Shorto
We are once again living, if DonaldTrump has his way, back in times when countries, populations and geographical features are ripe for negotiation or coercion. Which makes Russell Shorto’s account of the early history of New York City timely: here was a strategic hub first owned by the Lenape tribe, then claimed by the French, the Dutch and the English, and segueing from New Angoulême to New Amsterdam to New York as it changed hands.
Shorto’s brisk and fact-filled narrative details how in 1664 New York became a British possession, prized from the rival Dutch. A war fleet under Richard Nicolls was dispatched to take the place by force but negotiations with the Dutch governor Peter Stuyvesant meant it was in fact ceded without bloodshed and with leave given to the polyglot inhabitants, some 1,500 of them, not only to remain but to carry on trading. As Shorto notes, the pluralistic characteristics of the modern city were there from the start. It is a story rich in intrigue, diplomacy and personalities. If the Gulf of Mexico can suddenly become the Gulf of America, then New York has a better claim to reverting to New Amsterdam.
By Michael Prodger
Swift Press, 416pp, £22. Buy this book
Affairs: True Stories of Love, Lies, Hope and Desire by Juliet Rosenfeld
Affairs are an exceptionally common feature of human behaviour, but the impulse to have them is underexplored, making it ripe for one of those riveting books of anonymous case studies written by a Freudian shrink. “When an affair begins, people silence part of themselves,” says Juliet Rosenfeld. Affairs reveal all our deepest wounds, so those who have them ought to be seen as victims: even the clinically psychopathic “Neil”, a 70-something retired lawyer who feeds off rows with his ever-saddening young mistress, and is “moved” by her stricken face as he leaves her in a hotel room for the umpteenth time. (“You haven’t really bonded with your baby,” he tells her.) Neil adores his wife at home: he just “can’t stand to be in a couple with her” because of his own childhood losses – a life of threesomes is the only way he feels safe.
You always wonder whether a therapist puts potential clients off when they compile engrossing books out of their personal stories. But Rosenfeld was up-front, placing small ads – “contact researchingtheaffair@gmail.com” – in the Spectator and the London Review of Books.
By Kate Mossman
Bluebird, 288pp, £20. Buy this book
The Story of Witches: Folklore, History and Superstition by Willow Winsham
Whether in folklore, fairy tales or the more esoteric sections of civilisation, the figure of the witch has been woven into the fabric of society over the course of human history. Multifaceted, she is demonic and deviant as much as she is liberated and revered. But, as the historian of witchcraft Willow Winsham asks, what role has the witch played in shaping the beliefs of mankind?
Winsham’s expertise is undeniable and expansive – the book opens with the Greek goddess Hecate and concludes with a brief discussion on modern-day neopaganism. But perhaps, given that the book is fewer than 200 pages, such an extensive scope inhibits Winsham’s ability to give a satisfying answer to her own question. Nevertheless, bewitching tidbits are aplenty. Killing a witch, for example, was a costly business (though hanging was substantially cheaper than burning). “To burn Mary Lakeland in 1645,” Winsham elucidates, “cost Ipswich £3 3s 6d – three times what it would have cost to hang her.” With nuggets as fascinating as this to occasionally chew on, Winsham is able to show that the impulse to better understand this elusive figure is as irresistible as ever.
By Zoë Huxford
Batsford, 192pp, £20. Buy this book
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This article appears in the 26 Mar 2025 issue of the New Statesman, Putin’s Endgame