Funds for bookworm are provided in part by Lannin Foundation.

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.

From KCRW, Santa Monica, I'm Michael Silverblatt, and this is Bookworm.

And today, our theme song is unusually apposite to the work of my guest, the writer Jane DeLinn, whose new novel is Leish,

published by Semiotext in their native agent series.

Now, in this work, which is a philosophical work of quasi-pornography, what the French call

pornography, a woman exploring her own masochism

by the final chapter has turned into a dog and, in fact, is about to make the decision to have

her vocal cords severed and enter an entirely different relation.

And her fingers sewed together to become pause so she can no longer write and with the vocal

cord severance can no longer talk.

Yes.

And...

She doesn't actually become a dog, Michael.

She, I mean, physically, she's still a human.

However, she chooses to live life as a dog rather than return to life as a human being.

Now this is the work of Jane DeLinn, whose other novels include some do, enthrall, real estate, and Don Juan in the village.

And I would say it's the ultimate inner progression that has become funnier, darker, more self-conscious,

and very open in its transgressive sexuality. In fact, I hear that the book

...