©2025 Fable Group Inc.
4.0 

I Who Have Never Known Men

By Jacqueline Harpman & Ros Schwartz &
I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman & Ros Schwartz &  digital book - Fable

Publisher Description

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 a 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.

Jacqueline Harpman was born in Etterbeek, Belgium, in 1929, and fled to Casablanca with her family during WWII. Informed by her background as a psychoanalyst and her youth in exile, I Who Have Never Known Men is a haunting, heartbreaking post-apocalyptic novel of female friendship and intimacy, and the lengths people will go to maintain their humanity in the face of devastation. Back in print for the first time since 1997, Harpman’s modern classic is an important addition to the growing canon of feminist speculative literature.

Download the free Fable app

app book lists

Stay organized

Keep track of what you’re reading, what you’ve finished, and what’s next.
app book recommendations

Build a better TBR

Swipe, skip, and save with our smart list-building tool
app book reviews

Rate and review

Share your take with other readers with half stars, emojis, and tags
app comments

Curate your feed

Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communities
app book lists

Stay organized

Keep track of what you’re reading, what you’ve finished, and what’s next.
app book recommendations

Build a better TBR

Swipe, skip, and save with our smart list-building tool
app book reviews

Rate and review

Share your take with other readers with half stars, emojis, and tags
app comments

Curate your feed

Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communities

15447 Reviews

4.0
Thinking Face“Though it’s a quick read, I don’t remember the last time I read a book in one day. This book was incredibly unique. It proves the beauty of a hopeful and curious spirit. I felt an incredible range of emotions from a narrator who didn’t even have the words to explain what exactly she was feeling.”
“we search for meaning and find abundance and love even in direness! i finished this book in less than a day. loved it, still wish i knew more about the world they lived in / circumstance for apocalyptic environment but it was so beautifully written”
Thinking Face“I enjoyed the book greatly. It gave me a lot to think about, the idea Oscar wild had of not only existing but living I felt related a lot to this story. The idea that living may be determined by how we can experience it with others. The Child goes through the whole book existing but in her moments of living were through learning,seeing, and experiencing humanity and all it has to offer. I also found that when the book ended I wasn’t satisfied with the uncertainty. I of course have my theories as to what happened and why the bunkers,cages and desolate land. But the child seemed to have made peace with the uncertainty and accepted her lack of knowledge, perhaps as she points out because she has no context of the world. Maybe it’s because of my own context I so desperately want a detailed explanation on their situation.”

About Jacqueline Harpman

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.

Sophie Mackintosh

Sophie Mackintosh is the author of Blue Ticket and The Water Cure, which was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize.

Start a Book Club

Start a public or private book club with this book on the Fable app today!

FAQ

Do I have to buy the ebook to participate in a book club?

Why can’t I buy the ebook on the app?

How is Fable’s reader different from Kindle?

Do you sell physical books too?

Are book clubs free to join on Fable?

How do I start a book club with this book on Fable?

Error Icon
Save to a list
0
/
30
0
/
100
Private List
Private lists are not visible to other Fable users on your public profile.
Notification Icon
Fable uses the TMDB API but is not endorsed or certified by TMDB