Yo que nunca supe de los hombres

A woman who does not know her own name is locked in an underground cage with thirty-nine other women, watched through glass by a guard who never speaks. She is the youngest, and she has never seen a man. When the women start to die or vanish one by one, and the guards disappear, the survivors find a way out and discover the world above seems empty. Harpman's short novel follows the narrator's attempt to live, think, and keep company in a world with no explanations and no history.

It will appeal to readers of quiet, philosophical post-apocalyptic fiction. Anyone interested in questions about what makes a person human, absent a society or past, will find a haunting, compact story.

Deep, inward-looking, contemplative, open-ended and thought-provoking; a moderate read.

Best for readers like The Wisdom Collector. Which reader are you?