You are a human animal.

You are a very special breed.

Or you are the only animal.

Who can think, who can reason, who can read.

Hello and welcome to Bookworm. This is Michael Silverblad, and today my

guest is A.L. Kennedy, author of Original Bliss, published by Knopf. I taped this interview when I was

at Cambridge University's Downing College for a symposium on contemporary British writing. To some

extent, you don't expect much to happen at a symposium.

You hear the works of people whose work you already know,

some of it respectable, some of it not.

And then occasionally, a miracle happens.

Well, a miracle happened.

I was absolutely delighted to hear the work of A.L. Kennedy, which was new to me,

which had at that time never been published in America. This work seems to me to be fresh, lively,

original, exciting, sexual, demanding, full of explosiveness. A.L. Kennedy is now at last being

published in the United States.

Original Bliss, a novella, has been published by Knapp.

When I spoke with Alison Kennedy in England at Downing College, I asked her to read excerpts

from a short story.

Here's A.L. Kennedy.

This is a story called Indelible Acts. It wasn't difficult.

That's nice. That's nice. Anyone could have done it. Absolutely anyone. Just the way I like you.

...