I Who Have Never Known Men

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What to expect

Brought to you by Penguin.


THE HEART-BREAKING POST-APOCALYPTIC TIKTOK SENSATION

Discover the haunting, heartbreaking post-apocalyptic tale of female friendship and intimacy set in a deserted world.

Deep underground, 39 women are kept in isolation in a cage. Aboveground, a world awaits. Has it been abandoned? Devastated by a virus?

Watched over by guards, the women have no memory of how they got there, no notion of time and only vague recollection of their lives before. But, as the burn of electric light merges day into night and numberless years pass, a young girl - the 40th 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 aboveground. The woman who will never know men.

Listeners Reviews:
‘The voice actor is FANTASTIC’ *****
‘Life-changing. An absolute must read.’ *****
‘Beautiful contemplation on what makes life worth living’ *****

©2019 Jacqueline Harpman (P)2021 Penguin Audio

Critics Review

It is a novel about community, loneliness, and solitude, about intellectual awakening in impossible situations. It asks... What does it mean to be alive, to learn, to know?
Carmen Maria Machado
A novel that takes you into philosophically interesting territory… this [is a] intriguingly dark thought experiment told by a compellingly alien voice – dispassionate and unfussy – is strangely fascinating
The Times
A vivid evocation of another world, alive with hope and dignity
A bleak but fascinating postapocalyptic novel… all the loneliness and oblivion of a deserted world won't stop us from following the narrator as far as she can go

User Reviews

Book 4.9
Narration 4.8
5.0
5.0
read in 2 days, couldn’t stop!
Jessica Tweed 28/10/2025
5.0
5.0
madeleine 24/08/2025
5.0
5.0
Ola 20/08/2025
5.0
5.0
So many things to think about…
sangita 15/03/2025
5.0
5.0
lialexia 04/02/2025
5.0
5.0
I needed this book, it is so beautiful and a profound meditation on life, humanity and solitude.
HollyHoovers 01/11/2024
5.0
5.0
minusfigures 17/05/2024
4.0
3.0
pollybaker87 18/02/2024

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