Cassie McCullagh

Like they're sort of these giant orgies before they eat every meal.

But it's also being controlled by Mama, the main character, the main bonobo.

And so she looks at them and then she starts to see hidden patterns and do her research.

No.

Okay.

No, she actually is doing research.

She's doing observational.

Okay.

But there is no cross-species sex going on.

But it seemed to me, Felicity, that individual bonobos in this book become characters.

We know who they are.

We know how they act.

We know how they interact.

Frankie and an off-sider of hers, who's also another important character, they're observing these creatures very closely.

Did that work for you?

I liked the first half of the book the most, and partly because oddly it was, the narrative is driven by taking research seriously.

Yeah, absolutely.

So this research, this intellectual project that she's doing, which is developing the theory of bastards, which is a sort of scientific idea that she's positing.

Which is the title of the book.

Which is the title of the book.