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.

Hi, this is Michael Silverblad, and welcome to Bookworm.

Today, my guest is Chakunda Belli,

the author of the novel The Inhabited Woman

recently published by Curbstone Press.

She's the author of several books of poetry.

Translated into English is from Eve's Rib,

also from Curbstone.

Well, at one point in this novel, the inhabited woman, Gavinia, the heroine, is asked how she

got her name, and she says that her mother liked Latin names.

I'm going to ask you about your name first.

Well, it's the same origin.

My mother liked strange names.

And she, you know, since we had an Italian last name,

she thought we should have appropriate first names for our last name.

So we all have, you know, Italian names.

But my sisters and mine, La Vinia is my sister.

I have a sister named Lavinia.

And La Vinia and Jokonda are the two names that are the most exotic in the family.

...