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

Published Jul 1, 1998

Average rating: 7.33

9 RATINGS

|

These clubs recently read this book...

LA Westside Women’s Book Club

A group of women who meet once a month in Culver City to talk about books

Community Reviews

Hanna Goldfarb
Jan 31, 2026
8/10 stars
feeling at a loss for words with this one
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.

See why thousands of readers are using Bookclubs to stay connected.