How a ‘bleak’ 30-year-old Belgian book about women caged in an underground bunker became Gen Z’s ‘favourite’ novel

Gen Z have been captivated by a Belgian 30-year-old book about women who are caged by men – which has sparked comparisons to dystopian thriller, The Handmaid’s Tale.

Readers on BookTok have been left sobbing and claim the ‘bleak’ sci-fi novel absolutely ‘ruined’ them – and the previously little-known work has gone from selling just a few copies annually to thousands per year being snapped up at book shops.

Pop star Dua Lipa even recommended it in her Service95 newsletter, which praised it as ‘evocative and thrilling’.

The plot of I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman tells the story of 39 women, who are kept in a bunker-type underground burrowing which is heavily guarded.

The prisoners are told nothing – and have no memory of how they got there – with only the flickering of a light to tell them anything about time or place.

However, one day an alarm sounds and the captured are free to leave – with the short book exploring what freedom means above ground.

The book has clearly had a profound effect on readers, with many taking to social media to express being equal parts impressed and devastated by the book. 

‘Guys I am not OK,’ TikToker @this_bookish_thing said in a video, holding up the cover. ‘Finished it, broke my heart into a thousand little pieces.

‘I had a lump in my throat for most of the book… this ruined me.’

Others remarked that while the novel will leave you frustrated, it impressively handles thought-provoking themes.  

‘The way passage of time is dealt with heightens this feeling of existential dread,’ @alinaslibrary said in her review. ‘It also contributes to how bleak this book feels.’

However, she found it will leave you with more questions than answers – and ‘you wont feel satisfied’.

‘I personally felt quite empty and overwhelmed at the same time after reading this one,’ she continued.

‘If that doesn’t sell it, I don’t know what will!’ 

Elsewhere, influencer @frostgalaxy called it ‘one of the best books she read’ in 2024.

‘I literally haven’t been able to stop thinking about this book since I finished it,’ she said.

‘Frustratingly, it poses and asks so many questions and yet refuses to answer any of them.

‘Bleak and unsettling in the endless pursuit of answers with an emotional edge that definitely leaves an impact. I’d highly recommend.’

And BookToker @nicolereads98 found that ‘this book makes you feel so grateful for everything you have in your life’.

‘It’s a great representation of how strong women can be, how amazing women can be when they come together as a team… how women do not need men to survive,’ she said.

‘The book is very bleak there were no answers to your questions – and it has some beautiful poetic prose.’

An independent bookshop recommended the read on TikTok, comparing it to another revered classic.

‘Let me tell you about a hauntingly beautiful book that had me hooked,’ @veranda.bookshop in London shared.

‘I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman is dystopian fiction but feels like so much more – it’s like stepping into a dream and then realizing it’s a nightmare you can’t wake up from.

‘It’s not action-packed, but it makes you think about existence, society, and loneliness in a way few books do.

‘This is the kind of book that crawls under your skin. It’s about survival but also so much deeper – a mix of The Handmaid’s Tale vibes with existential philosophy. Perfect if you love something unusual that makes your brain work overtime.

‘Recommended for: fans of quiet dystopian novels or anyone who wonders about “what it means to be human.” Warning: it will leave you with questions, but that’s half the fun.’

The book has also been praised for its ‘beautiful’ but ‘accessible’ writing and prose, and TikTok commenters have admitted to being unable to stop thinking about it after picking it up.

As shared by Goodreads, author Jacqueline Harpman was born in Etterbeek, Belgium, in 1929, ‘and fled to Casablanca with her family during WWII’.

‘Informed by her background as a psychoanalyst and her youth in exile, I Who Have Never Known Men is a haunting, heartbreaking post-apocalyptic novel of female friendship and intimacy, and the lengths people will go to maintain their humanity in the face of devastation,’ the platform added.

The Guardian reports that I Who Have Never Known Men has seen US shops struggling to keep copies of the book in stock, and in the UK, Waterstones’ head of books, Bea Carvalho called it a bestselling staple of fiction sections across our bookshops’.

According to the outlet, 45,000 copies sold last year – which is ‘an elevenfold rise on 2022’.

The book’s translator, Ros Schwartz, told the publication she has been surprised by the sudden fervour for the novel – but guesses it ‘just strikes a chord with the younger generation, which it didn’t at the time’.

‘And whether that’s to do with publicity or whether it’s completely random, I don’t know,’ she added. That’s one of the wonderful things about publishing – you never know.’

Ros’s first translation came out in the 90s – but decades later, in 2019, she released an updated version.

Nick Skidmore, publishing director at Vintage, also told the Guardian more curiosity in the novel may stem from its catchy title – as the translation was initially published as The Mysteries of Silence.

‘I think the book captures this sense of the world where people are feeling bewildered. It’s a profoundly existential book, like some of the classics resonating with gen Z right now – Dostoevsky’s White Nights, for example,’ he said.

‘The type of stories that engage with very weighty questions of our existence.’