Ishmael

The protagonist of this novel, Ishmael is a lowlands gorilla born free in the 1920s in equatorial West Africa, captured as a baby by famed animal hunters, and deposited in a zoo, where he, like other formerly wild animals, senses this life is unnatural. He has memories of belonging to a family in Africa and enjoying a life of abundant food. Sold as an adolescent, early in the Great Depression, to the owner of a traveling menagerie and given the stage name, "Goliath," Ishmael is advertised as a bloodthirsty giant slaying Africans. In truth, he is developing logical, methodical thought and learning to follow human conversations. Walter Sokolow purchases Ishmael, to whom he gives his definitive name, to redeem him in a way he cannot redeem his Jewish family, perishing in Nazi-occupied Europe. Ishmael convinces Sokolow of his ability to think but lacks speech organs to communicate with...