Name: I Who Have Never Known Men
Rating: 4.162742718446601 (412 reviews)
ISBN: 9781945492600

Jacqueline Harpman

Discover the haunting, heartbreaking post-apocalyptic tale of female friendship and intimacy set in a deserted world.

Deep underground, thirty-nine women are kept in isolation in a cage. Above ground, a world awaits. Has it been abandoned? Devastated by a virus?

Watched over by guards, the women have no memory of how they got there, no notion of time, and only vague recollection of their lives before. But, as the burn of electric light merges day into night and numberless years pass, a young girl - the fortieth prisoner - sits alone and outcast in the corner.

Soon she will show herself to be the key to the others' escape and survival in the strange world that awaits them above ground. The woman who will never know men.

I Who Have Never Known Men

Moi qui n'ai pas connu les hommes

sina (she/her) 

If the only thing that differentiates us from animals is the fact that we hide to defecate, then being human rests on very little, I thought. 

Anastasia Illner

✧༺♥༻✧

Is there a satisfaction in the effort of remembering that provides its own nourishment, and is what one recollects less important than the act of remembering? 

Chenay Kamara

nhu ⋆𐙚₊˚⊹

I thought it was unfair, and then I understood that, alone and terrified, anger was my only weapon against the horror.

han ˚✧₊⁎❝᷀ົཽ

You’ve never seen a child, you don’t know what it means – their vulnerability, their trust, the love you feel for them, the anxiety, being ready to lay down your life to save them, and it’s unbearable to imagine a child’s pain.

Perhaps, somewhere, humanity is flourishing under the stars, unaware that a daughter of its blood is ending her days in silence. There is nothing we can do about it.

Sometimes, as I returned to the group around the fire, I’d feel a rush of emotion; I was moved by the flickering of the flames in the night, the silhouettes of the women resting, the interplay of words or Denise’s reedy voice carrying the laments of another era across the plain, and I understood what Anthea called beauty, which apparently had been so abundant in their world.”

We had survived the prison, the plain and the loss of all hope, but the women had discovered that survival is no more than putting off the moment of death. 

They’d been custodians of the absurd, carrying out orders whose purpose they were unaware of, themselves having to submit to incomprehensible rules, and perhaps they had no more idea of our identity than we did of theirs. 

It all seemed incredibly strange, sinister and moving. I felt the burden of the inexplicable, of my life, of that world to which I was the sole witness.

It is strange that I am dying from a diseased womb, I who have never had periods and who have never known men.

I was forced to acknowledge too late, much too late, that I too had loved, that I was capable of suffering and that I was human after all.

amari

Gemma

"In that case, what were men for?" I asked.

Iris van der zanden

I thought about it because I was in the habit of considering every angle of a question, and I'd never had any form of entertainment other than thinking.

I was forced to acknowledge too late, much too late, that I too had loved, that I was capable of suffering, and that I was human after all.

annaaa

And now, racked with sobs, I was forced to acknowledge too late, much too late, that I too had loved, that I was capable of suffering and that I was human after all.

A haunting, heartbreaking post-apocalyptic tale of female friendship and intimacy. 'A small miracle' The New York Times 'For a very long time, the days went by, each just like the day before, then I began to think, and everything changed' Deep underground, thirty-nine women live imprisoned in a cage. Watched over by guards, the women have no memory of how they got there, no notion of time, and only vague recollection of their lives before. As the burn of electric light merges day into night and numberless years pass, a young girl - the fortieth prisoner - sits alone and outcast in the corner. Soon she will show herself to be the key to the others' escape and survival in the strange world that awaits them above ground. WITH A NEW INTRODUCTION BY SOPHIE MACKINTOSH, MAN BOOKER PRIZE-LONGLISTED AUTHOR OF THE WATER CURE

Nushrat Nur

So riveting despite not a lot happening. It’s simultaneously cathartic and horrifying - the nothingness of it all

A young woman is kept in a cage underground with thirty-nine other females, guarded by armed men who never speak; her crimes unremembered...if indeed there were crimes. The youngest of forty--a child with no name and no past--she survives for some purpose long forgotten in a world ravaged and wasted. In this reality where intimacy is forbidden--in the unrelenting sameness of the artificial days and nights--she knows nothing of books and time, of needs and feelings. Then everything changes...and nothing changes. A young woman who has never known men--a child who knows of no history before the bars and restraints--must now reinvent herself, piece by piece, in a place she has never been...and in the face of the most challenging and terrifying of unknowns: freedom. A young woman is kept in a cage underground with thirty-nine other females, guarded by armed men who never speak; her crimes unremembered...if indeed there were crimes.The youngest of forty--a child with no name and no past--she survives for some purpose long forgotten in a world ravaged and wasted. In this reality where intimacy is forbidden--in the unrelenting sameness of the artificial days and nights--she knows nothing of books and time, of needs and feelings.Then everything changes...and nothing changes.A young woman who has never known men--a child who knows of no history before the bars and restraints--must now reinvent herself, piece by piece, in a place she has never been...and in the face of the most challenging and terrifying of unknowns: freedom.

I Who Never Known Men

Surreal in a way that really makes you think about your own perception on life and the idea of "normal". The story is repetitive, but purposefully so and drives home the emotions central to the narrator. You're left with a lot of questions at the end. You're not really meant to find the answers. 

Peyton

leaf

✨ Initial vibe: Unsettling, wonder for what happened to them all. 💭 Loved: The emotions of the main character felt very realistic. As well as the shift of the narration as she grew older. 🪞 Didn’t love: I think I got bored because there wasn't enough plot for me. It felt extremely repetitive, but that might be the whole point of the story. 🌙 Fav Quote: “I was forced to acknowledge too late, much too late, that I too had loved, that I was capable of suffering, and that I was human after all.” 🍵 Aftertaste: Felt a bit helpless. I felt for the character but it just wasn't the story for me.

What a book! I read it in one sitting, a feeling I have missed. 

such a melancholy read but preciously human. The premise is so strange and haunting, and I love the focus the plot had kept start to finish. I feel like the ending needed to be what it was to make the story work 

Jenn

I was slightly disappointed about the ending that we all hoped we would have, but the story is so compelling with lots of tension, and so much hope. It displays how strong women can be and how one would live under different circumstances. It was so easy to read, finished it in a couple of days and has left me pondering. 

Olanda

Ashley Denktas

This book was fucked up and depressing but also a bit hopeful. I desperately wanted there to be an answer for why what happened happened. But despite that I think it had showcased a womanhood, humanity, and how even in the face of violence humans can do good. I thought it was quite interesting the theme of them being on another planet came up so much insinuating that humans couldn’t be capable of this horror. Honestly maybe they were since the landscape was so unrecognizable but yeah. This book made me constantly think and I’m still thinking about it.

so lonesome but still hopeful. the entire time i was just hoping she would bump into someone

Luoyi

Shahir Saleheen

Absolutly incredible read. There is a deep feeling of uneasiness within this story that builds an insane amount of tension, between the character's relationships with each other and their relationship with their environment. A lot of that tension is developed from the unknowing conditions in the world they're livjng in: as readers, we have very little background information of the women and they have a limited understanding of their past. The prose within this novel is extremely direct, and perfectly captures the state in which these women are in, and their progression as a population. This novel has an incredble theme of following the feelings of anger, anger that is so present within the protagonist in the beginning that disappears over the course of the story. It translates so well with the surreal themes of the world around them, where they begin to learn more about the world around them. It's an incredibly saddening read, but it also tells a great story about the indomitable human spirit with representation that often get overlooked.

Stella M

It was oh so beautifully written, devastating and so me! ❤️

captures the loneliness really well and is really interesting but not much really happens or at least not as much as i expected

charlowwe

there is strangely a comforting feeling that this book has given me. dystopian in its raw and most violent form - silence, solitude, and loneliness combined.

sofia mae

Sinny

I don’t think I’ve ever felt quite this frustrated with a book. From page one you know it’s not going to be a hopeful story, and given the premise (forty women imprisoned in an underground bunker in a dystopian, post-apocalyptic world) the bleakness tracks. Still, despite the genuinely fascinating concept, I struggled with the actual experience of reading it. The narrator is clearly written this way on purpose. Raised entirely outside society, stripped of social structures, cultural norms, and any conventional idea of what makes someone human, she isn’t “normal” in any sense we’d recognize. There’s something compelling in that premise: what’s left of a person once you strip away every framework that usually shapes identity. But I found it genuinely hard to connect with her. The novel is, in theory, a coming-of-age story, yet I never felt any real sense of growth or transformation. She stays distant, detached, almost clinical the whole way through. Intellectually, I get why. Emotionally, it left me cold. The other thing that frustrated me was how the book handled feminism and gender. I went in expecting a deep exploration of female existence, autonomy, and identity. Instead, a lot of the conversations between the women read as surprisingly traditional, even outdated. For a story with an entirely female cast, so much of it still orbited around men: their absence, their importance, their influence, rather than the women’s own experiences, desires, relationships, or pleasure on their own terms. The feminist ideas felt rooted in an older framework rather than anything that read as radical or liberating. To be fair, the premise is genuinely intriguing, and the book does raise interesting questions about humanity, society, identity, and what’s left once civilization is gone. Harpman’s ideas are ambitious and thought-provoking. The execution just left me more frustrated than moved. By the end, I actually wanted the book to be over, which is saying something given how short it is. Original concept, interesting ideas, but it never quite turned into something I felt.

Estelle 

Juli

Felix Micah

I fell in love with this book from the first pages. I saw a lot of people saying it was bleak and boring but to me it was very captivating, I consumed it in one breath. The author’s writing combined with the way it was translated was very pleasant and easy to read. 

 I realised quite early that there probably wouldn’t be any answers, so I wasn’t disappointed at the end. Though when the Child found a book in the guard’s bag, I had a slight hope that maybe there would be some manual, some explanation to the world she lived in. 

I enjoyed the Child’s curiosity, hunger for knowledge just for its sake, her happiness learning new skills, building, constructing. The fact that she never lost hope. And her last acts symbolised that beautiful - writing a book as well as dying with grace in case she was to be found. 

I had a weird feeling that though their world was very different, it was also the same as ours. There is no purpose, there are always more questions than answers. The only thing you can do is explore the world and yourself, find joy in daily tasks and companionship. 

I was hesitant to read it because I thought I would find it disturbing but it was actually quite calm and peaceful despite all the absurdity and horrors. 

Kateryna

I fell in love with this book from the first pages. I saw a lot of people saying it was bleak and boring but to me it was very captivating, I consumed it in one breath. The author’s writing combined with the way it was translated was very pleasant and easy to read. 

 I realised quite early that there probably wouldn’t be any answers, so I wasn’t disappointed at the end. Though when the Child found a book in the guard’s bag, I had a slight hope that maybe there would be some manual, some explanation to the world she lived in. 

I enjoyed the Child’s curiosity, hunger for knowledge just for its sake, her happiness learning new skills, building, constructing. The fact that she never lost hope. And her last acts symbolised that beautiful - writing a book as well as dying with grace in case she was to be found. 

I had a weird feeling that though their world was very different, it was also the same as ours. There is no purpose, there are always more questions than answers. The only thing you can do is explore the world and yourself, find joy in daily tasks and companionship. 

I was hesitant to read it because I thought I would find it disturbing but it was actually quite calm and peaceful despite all the absurdity and horrors. 

Nadine MacDonald

very unusual and not at all what I expected. I wish some of my questions had been answered but still loved this nonetheless. hard to put down as it’s all just one single chapter. definitely feel very grateful for the cushiony life we have after reading this

A prize-winning, "womanist" novel--part thriller, part science-fiction fantasy--traces the emotional and sexual awakening of one woman, the youngest of a group imprisoned in a world of men who attempt to dehumanize them. IP.

A Novel

omg this was so good. honestly my favourite book atm, i really enjoy a story with philosophical elements embedded into it. i feel like this book could truly be written at any time, the writing is sooo timeless it’s so impressive. i think that it offers a really interesting perspective and is so demonstrative of how male centred a society that doesn’t even include men can be. 

astrid reid

I who have never known men by Jaqueline Harpman contradicts my refusal to read books solely written for the embodiment of English language as a central concept. It is simply magnificent, and worthy of having every single letter of ink to be read. Rather than relying on complicated and impressive words, I admire Harpmans use of simple sentence structures mapping out the human thought process but from the perspective of one whom has never known our well known perception of this so called world, one who has never known relationships, love, emotions alongside man made structures, norms and values engraved in daily life. There are hundreds of quotes in this book which have touched me completely despite their being so simple. It is endlessly fascinating to be placed in the perceived reality of someone whom has never experienced what we consider so normal. This read has been endlessly interesting and I am grateful to have had the privilege to read this book and simply recognise the captivating brain behind it ! 

Such a stirring story. I spent most of the read reimagining the scenes because I cannot identify the feelings I had as I went through the book, but I can feel them. I don't know what I'm saying anymore. It's almost like I felt nothing and everything at the same time. It took quite a while for me to reach the end

Yulez

4.5 ⭐️ When I read the last line, I found myself left with many unanswered questions and no closure. However, after reading the afterword, I gained a new understanding of the novel’s purpose: to challenge readers to question humanity at its core, encourage deep introspection, and consider how humanity might behave if stripped of preconceived notions of civility. The novel’s main argument centers on examining the nature of humanity in extreme isolation. Continuing this sense of uncertainty, the novel reads like a journal or diary, retelling events from the lives of both our protagonist and the narrator, known to us only as “the girl.” The writing itself has a sort of clinical but introspective approach, stating all observations and thoughts to the reader. Being told in this manner adds an eerie feeling to the vastness and solitude of the existence that our protagonist ultimately finds herself in. This sense of reflection deepens with the afterword, which was really the glue that brought this whole story together for me. I appreciated the background history of our author, which added a whole dimension to my interpretation of the writing and the feelings and thoughts I assumed the author was working through. In the end, I did enjoy the story overall, and it’s definitely one of those novels you’ll think about, dissect, and turn over when you recall its pages.

wish, much like the child, that i knew why and how they were there

Nat Wong

i really really enjoyed this book. so much thought and tears throughout reading. highly recommend 

I Who Have Never Known Men

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