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Staff Reviews
A haunting meditation on selfhood and resilience, and a master work of dystopian speculative fiction, this book left me with more questions than answers. Nonetheless, I raced through it just a few hours, desperate to find out what becomes of the women trapped within these pages, and within their own cruel circumstance.
— Melanie
I'm very rarely at a loss for words, but this book left me speechless. I recommend going into it blind. Trust me on this one, it is freaky and phenomenal.
— Quinn
I swallowed this novel whole as it played out before me like a piece of cinema. Our narrator, fated to a life of captivity, displays inner strength and imagination that knows no bounds. It is a story that emphasizes the journey rather than the reason. Where there are beating hearts, there is desire, love, and the quest for companionship.
— Maci
A quiet, dystopian meditation on femininity without the imposition of the male gaze, time as a social construct, and the meaning of a life not witnessed.
— Marion
Like Markson's WITTGENSTEIN'S MISTRESS or Morselli's DISSIPATIO H.G., Harpman here seeks answers to questions such as, "What would life be like, once completely devoid of community, culture, and care?" Spoiler alert: it wouldn't be great.
— Max
Description
A work of fantasy, I Who Have Never Known Men is the haunting and unforgettable account of a near future on a barren earth where women are kept in underground cages guarded by uniformed groups of men. It is narrated by the youngest of the women, the only one with no memory of what the world was like before the cages, who must teach herself, without books or sexual contact, the essential human emotions of longing, loving, learning, companionship, and dying. Part thriller, part mystery, I Who Have Never Known Men shows us the power of one person without memories to reinvent herself piece by piece, emotion by emotion, in the process teaching us much about what it means to be human.
About the Author
JACQUELINE HARPMAN was born in Etterbeek, Belgium, in 1929. Being half Jewish, the family moved to Casablanca when the Nazis invaded and returned home after the war. After studying French literature she started training to be a doctor, but could not complete her medical studies when she contracted tuberculosis. She turned to writing in 1954 and her first work was published in 1958. In 1980 she qualified as a psychoanalyst. She had given up writing after her fourth book was published, and resumed her career as a novelist only some twenty years later.
Praise For…
“Carefully crafted, this novel is both unusual and thought-provoking.” –Library Journal
“Beautifully written …” –Booklist
“It is surprising that a book with the psychological detail of a nightmare elicits in the reader feelings of such profound intensity.” –Le Monde
“The delirium of I Who Have Never Known Men suggests the work of a feminine Kafka.” –Le Nouvel Observateur
“Harpman says here all there is to say about dignity and the difficulty of remaining human in the face of suffering.” –Le Quotidien
