A review by pzdrnk
I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman

5.0

This is the most haunting and thought-provoking book I’ve read in a long time. Harpman’s prose is stark and stylistically flawless, imbued with a relentless sense of inevitability. The concept itself is powerful: a slim dystopian novel narrated by an anonymous woman who has known nothing but life locked in a cage in a bunker with thirty-nine other women. Despite her profound isolation and inexperience, her narrative is deeply introspective. She possesses an intense capacity for emotion, yet she remains convinced she is not entirely human.

Both exquisite and devastating, I’m baffled that this novel hasn’t reached a wider audience.