Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead

by Olga Tokarczuk

The naming of Big Foot occurred in a similar way. It was quite straightforward—it suggested itself to me when I saw his footprints in the snow. To begin with, Oddball had called him “Shaggy,” but then he borrowed “Big Foot” from me. All it means is that I chose the right name for him. Unfortunately, I couldn’t choose a suitable name for myself. I regard the one that’s written on my identity card as scandalously wrong and unfair—Janina. I think my real name is Emilia, or Joanna. Sometimes I think it’s something like Irmtrud too. Or Bellona. Or Medea. Meanwhile Oddball avoids calling me by my name like the plague. That means something too. Somehow he always finds a way to address me as “you.”