I Who Have Never Known Men
A young woman is kept in a cage underground with thirty-nine other females, guarded by armed men who never speak; her crimes unremembered...if indeed there were crimes.
The youngest of forty--a child with no name and no past--she survives for some purpose long forgotten in a world ravaged and wasted. In this reality where intimacy is forbidden--in the unrelenting sameness of the artificial days and nights--she knows nothing of books and time, of needs and feelings.
Then everything changes...and nothing changes.
A young woman who has never known men--a child who knows of no history before the bars and restraints--must now reinvent herself, piece by piece, in a place she has never been...and in the face of the most challenging and terrifying of unknowns: freedom.
A young woman is kept in a cage underground with thirty-nine other females, guarded by armed men who never speak; her crimes unremembered...if indeed there were crimes.The youngest of forty--a child with no name and no past--she survives for some purpose long forgotten in a world ravaged and wasted. In this reality where intimacy is forbidden--in the unrelenting sameness of the artificial days and nights--she knows nothing of books and time, of needs and feelings.Then everything changes...and nothing changes.A young woman who has never known men--a child who knows of no history before the bars and restraints--must now reinvent herself, piece by piece, in a place she has never been...and in the face of the most challenging and terrifying of unknowns: freedom.BUY THE BOOK
Community Reviews
The narrator’s voice is haunting. Her reflections on connection, fear, captivity, and the realization of her own humanity are deeply moving. It’s the kind of book that forces you into contemplation whether you’re ready or not. It’s unsettling, sad, beautifully written, and absolutely worth reading.
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐/5
Favorite Quote: “I was forced to acknowledge too late, much too late, that I too had loved, that I was capable of suffering, and that I was human after all.”
Format: Audiobook
beautiful prose and story that describes loneliness and fraught desire so eloquently. i feel as though the author was describing how nostalgia can detract from our quest for meaning, that by lingering on the past we can become complacent rather than continuing to search with hope for a different, perhaps better future.
4 stars for enjoyment simply because i prefer plot driven narratives and it drives me crazy that we will never know the circumstances that led to this story. but the mystery is part of the profundity of the work i guess.
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