I WHO HAVE NEVER KNOWN MEN by Jacqueline Harpman (SOLD OUT)

It’s hard to say what exactly propelled this once-overlooked novel back onto shelves, 30 years after its original publication in French and 28 years after its first English translation.

Was it a lone publishing hero who championed its reissue in 2019? Was it this cover design or that cover design? Perhaps the phrase “I Who Have Never Known Men” struck a chord, or “feminist classic" or “post-apocalyptic dystopia.” Some will say it was readers on TikTok who took a break from romantasy or popular fiction to highlight something else entirely…

I WHO HAVE NEVER KNOWN MEN by the Belgian Francophone and Jewish author Jacqueline Harpman is a literary work of mirage-like quality, so haunting and communal it brought itself back from the brink.