I Who Have Never Known Men
The heart-breaking post-apocalyptic TikTok sensation
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4.2 • 334 Ratings
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- £3.99
Publisher Description
Discover the haunting, heart-breaking 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 an 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.
Discover the reader obsession.
WITH A NEW INTRODUCTION BY SOPHIE MACKINTOSH, BOOKER PRIZE-LONGLISTED AUTHOR OF THE WATER CURE
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
An account of a near future on an unknown planet where 40 women are imprisoned in underground barracks guarded by mysterious uniformed men, this novel marks the American debut of a writer the publisher proclaims as a new "womanist" voice but who is in fact a veteran French novelist (Orlanda, winner of the 1996 Prix Medicis, etc.). The story is divided in two. It first describes the countless years of the women's imprisonment; then is recounts their fortunate escape and slow realization that they are still prisoners, the only survivors on a barren planet they can't flee. Nonetheless, their new freedom inspires an emotional and intellectual reawakening. The women search for answers to explain how and why they came to be imprisoned; they remember, painfully but fondly, their past lives. The most enthusiastic of them is the nameless narrator, the youngest member of the group. She explores the land, demands that the other women educate her and maintains her curiosity long after her companions have given up. But her insights are neither provocative nor profound, and the authority she assumes rings false. More interesting is her emotional development. As prisoners in the barracks, the women were forbidden to touch each other. The narrator never learns to appreciate fully the new possibilities of physical closeness and remains emotionally unattached to all but one of her companions, who serves as her mentor. But such telling details are rare here. While offering hints and glints of Harpman's talent, this novel proves a disappointing Stateside debut.
Customer Reviews
This story is depressing
This is very sad story
Captivating, bleak and fascinating
To echo other reviewers, try to read this novel knowing as little as possible, it is better that way. And for goodness sake, don’t read the appalling introduction which essentially summarises the entire story in about three pages - I can’t think of a worse way of ruining a book.
Truly a dystopian masterpiece, I Who Have Never Known Men is a genuinely beautiful introspection on almost every aspect of what it is to be human. At times unsettling, at others mundane, but never boring. It’s very likely you have never read another novel like this one and it will stay with you.
Old School science fiction
Really enjoyed this book and found it fascinating and grim. I guess it could only have ended the way it ended without spoiling the sense of mystery the author had created.