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I Who Have Never Known Men

JACQUELINE HARPMAN
Translated by Ros Schwartz
Sophie Mackintosh
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I Who Have Never Known Men

JACQUELINE HARPMAN
Translated by Ros Schwartz
Sophie Mackintosh
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Overall rating: 4.433735 / 5 from 83 reviews.

AI Generated Review Summary

I Who Have Never Known Men is a captivating and haunting post-apocalyptic novel praised for its unique and intriguing story. Customers highly recommend it for its beautifully written and moving narrative, making it an essential addition to feminist speculative literature.

Summary topics

  • Story Quality: 8%
  • Recommendation: 30%
  • Novel Genre: 10%

Review topics: ["book","read","novel","story","writing","ending","title","women","fiction","perspective","narrative","mystery","written","concept","characters","world","tale","paced","woman","memories"].

Review highlights

  • "I Who Have Never Known Men is such a strange but beautiful book." — Nik02
  • "A unique and imaginative story that is an interesting insight into human nature and its social complexities." — Steph
  • "Not what I was expecting but still a great and interesting read" — Amy C.

Reviews

I who have never known me

"I just finished this book and I am left with so many questions and yet it has provided a sense of completion, an end to a journey. When I started reading it I had expected complete opposite from it and I am glad I picked it up. Narrator uses unemotional yet moving point of view and how it encounters everyday objects with such curiosity and gratitude that we forget how previllaged we are however little we might think we have."

— Dhvani P. (5/5)

Hauntingly Beautiful

"I picked this book up after reading several great reviews and I was not disappointed. You are taken through a tragic yet beautiful journey of a woman with life’s ups and downs. Would 10/10 recommend."

— Maheen (5/5)

Good book, damaged cover

"I really enjoyed this book, but there was a big stain/mark on the cover"

— Jenna (3/5)

Intriguing

"I picked up this book as a “staff pick” at my local Indigo’s. What I most admire about Harpman’s novel is how the author maintains the central mystery by never explaining WHY the protagonist was imprisoned, or WHO her guards were, or even WHERE the bunker was located. Recommended for fans of Atwood, of course, but also Sandra Newman’s “The Men” (2022), and Schopenhauer. (One is never freed from prison if life itself is a prison. )"

— Drew2026 (4/5)

Good title

"This book was not for me"

— Ashley G. (2/5)

Excellent!

"Very compelling and well written. Read it in one day. it explores feminist themes and concepts in an engaging way. I wish we got a few more answers or at least theories about what happened to these women. Well worth the read"

— Travis (4/5)

Something different

"I really enjoyed this book, it is very different than what I usually read."

— Maddie (4/5)

Give this book a go!

"Awesome read that kept me intrigued throughout. There were many unexpected turns that made you reflect on endless possibilities. Great read, highly recommend."

— Jenna T. (5/5)

I loved it

"This is an immersive and disturbing post-apocalyptic tale written from the vantage point of a woman imprisoned in a strange room with 39 other women. While it's a challenging read at times I thought the storytelling and narrative style was very effective. This is a very atmospheric book, where you don't necessarily walk away with all the answers but it makes you think. The translation was also excellent. Highly recommended!"

— Eric S. (5/5)

Definitely a proper title for the book

"Quick different read. A bit pricey for a short book that can be finished in a couple days"

— Cheryl C. (4/5)

Q&A

  • Published date: May 20, 2022
  • Language: English
  • No. of Pages: 208
  • Publisher: Transit Books
  • ISBN: 9781945492600
  • Dimensions: 5.25" W x 0.51" L x 8.0" H

“A small miracle . . . I Who Have Never Known Men is about as heavyhearted as fiction can get.”—New York Times

“Mesmerizing. . . . The book’s austere mystery—the atrophied and gelid world it depicts—provides a richly allusive consideration of human life.”—Deborah Eisenberg, New York Review of Books

“A consistently gripping experience.”―TLS

“Like Kafka with a dash of Ursula Le Guin, this story is part mystery, part science fiction, and all literature.”—Booklist

“Reading I Who Have Never Known Men forces the reader to contemplate what an immense privilege it is to be able to read books at all.”—Emily Gould, The Cut

“[I] couldn’t put it down. . . . It’s a deceptively simple but wholly propulsive story that explores the interplay between memory, patriarchy and solidarity.”—Laila Lalami, author of The Dream Hotel

“Immediately reminiscent of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale.”—Kirkus Reviews

“Evocative and thrilling, it’s a dystopian modern classic.”—Dua Lipa’sService95 Book Club

“Harpman says here all there is to say about dignity and the difficulty of remaining human in the face of suffering.”—Le Quotidien

“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

“[A] riveting narrative. . . . Carefully crafted, this novel is both unusual and thought-provoking.”—Library Journal

“Unlike other science fiction or fantasy novels, this is a universe without an invented order: there is no known infrastructure, no reveal, no men hiding behind a curtain. It is the simplicity of the writing that makes my skin crawl, so eerie in its absences.”—Haley Mlotek,Frieze

“[An] eerily evocative novel . . . this intriguingly dark thought experiment told by a compellingly alien voice—dispassionate and unfussy—is strangely fascinating.”—Lucy Scholes, The Times

“A vivid evocation of another world, alive with hope and dignity in the midst of cruelty and alienation. . . . A haunting testimony from an abandoned planet.”—Megan Hunter, author of The End We Start From

JACQUELINE HARPMAN (1929-2012) was a Belgian author of over fifteen novels. Born in Etterbeek, Belgium, in 1929, she fled to Casablanca with her family during the Second World War. She studied French literature and trained to become a doctor but was unable to continue her medical studies after contracting tuberculosis. Harpman began writing in 1954, and wrote over fifteen novels, winning numerous prizes, including the Prix ​​Médicis (Orlanda), the Prix ​​Victor-Rossel (Brève Arcadie), among others. I Who Have Never Known Men, originally published in French in 1995, was the first of her books to be translated into English.

ROS SCHWARTZ has translated numerous works of fiction and non-fiction from French, including several Georges Simenon titles for Penguin Classics, a new translation of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s The Little Prince and, most recently, Mireille Gansel’s Translation as Transhumance. The recipient of a number of awards, she was made a Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2009 and received the Institute of Translation and Interpreting’s John Sykes Memorial Prize for Excellence in 2017.

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