I Who Have Never Known Men

Synopsis

Thirty-nine women and a girl are being held prisoner in a cage underground. The guards are all male, and never speak to them. The girl is the only one of the prisoners who has no memory of the outside world; none of them know why they are being held prisoner, or why there is one child among thirty-nine adults.

One day, an alarm sounds, and the guards flee; the prisoners are subsequently able to escape. They find themselves on an immense barren plain, with no other people anywhere, and no clue as to what has happened to the world.

The women form a community, build dwellings, and one by one mourn the deaths of their group. Finally, only the narrator is left living. In her wanderings she affirms the planet has “almost no seasons,” and decides she is no longer on Earth. After many years exploring, she discovers an underground bunker with lushly-appointed furnishings and a variety of inscrutable scientific equipment, some of which she associates with the bunker’s books on Astronautics. In this luxurious bunker, the narrator sets down her memoirs (the text of the novel), as she prepares to die of uterine cancer.

Reception

The book was a finalist for the 1995 Prix Femina.

The New York Times described the novel as "bleak but fascinating", and "about as heavyhearted as fiction can get". Kirkus Reviews compared it to The Handmaid's Tale, and said that it is "thin", but "moving" and "powerful". L'Express called it "poignant" and "magnificent", and the product of a "profoundly original imagination". In a piece for The New York Review of Books, Deborah Eisenberg wrote, “Paradoxically, the book’s austere mystery—the atrophied and gelid world it depicts—provides a richly allusive consideration of human life.”

Ros Schwartz revised her translation for the 2019 reissue by Vintage in the UK, which included an introduction by Sophie Mackintosh. This revamp was released in the U.S. by Transit in 2022. Available again in English after many years out of print, the novel experienced a surge in popularity, in part due to reviews on TikTok. In 2024, a reissue of the book sold 100,000 copies in the United States.

References

References

1. [https://bll01.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/discovery/fulldisplay?docid=alma990074669630109251&context=L&vid=44BL_INST:BLL01 ''Mistress of Silence'', first UK edition] Catalogue of the [[British Library]]. Retrieved 22 July 2025.
2. [https://lccn.loc.gov/96037526 ''I Who Have Never Known Men'', first U.S. edition], Catalog of the [[Library of Congress]]. Retrieved 22 July 2025.
3. [http://www.locusmag.com/index/t848.htm The Locus Index to Science Fiction: 1984-1998] at ''[[Locus (magazine). Locus]]''; retrieved April 27, 2011
4. [https://www.lesechos.fr/1996/11/premier-round-des-prix-dautomne-844037 Premier round des prix d'automne], by Annie Coppermann; in ''[[Les Echos (France). Les Echos]]''; published November 5, 1996; retrieved October 25, 2020
5. [https://www.nytimes.com/books/97/09/14/bib/970914.rv114521.html "I Who Have Never Known Men": Books], by Sally Eckhoff, from the [[New York Times]], published September 14, 1997, retrieved April 27, 2011
6. [https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/jacqueline-harpman/i-who-have-never-known-men/ I Who Have Never Known Men, by Jacqueline Harpman], at [[Kirkus Reviews]]; published May 1, 1997; retrieved July 18, 2014
7. [https://www.lexpress.fr/culture/livre/moi-qui-n-ai-pas-connu-les-hommes_799267.html Moi qui n'ai pas connu les hommes], reviewed by Laurence Liban, in ''[[L'Express]]''; published October 1, 1995; retrieved October 25, 2020; "Par ce récit poignant d'une quête dont l'objet se dérobe, par la puissance d'une imagination profondément originale, fantastique à sa manière, troublante et terrible", Jacqueline Harpman signe, une fois de plus, une oeuvre magnifique."
8. Eisenberg, Deborah. (2022-07-21). "Condemned to Life". The New York Review of Books.
9. (30 January 2025). "The Handmaid’s Tale for Gen Z". The Cut.
10. Machado, Carmen Maria. (2025-09-05). "“I Who Have Never Known Men” Is a Warning". The New Yorker.