Belgian Novel 'I Who Have Never Known Men' Gains U.S. Popularity Through TikTok
Jacqueline Harpman's novel, 'I Who Have Never Known Men,' originally by a Belgian writer and psychoanalyst who passed away in 2012, has experienced a significant resurgence in the U.S. market. Its 2022 American translation, published by Transit Books, gained widespread attention after becoming popular on TikTok, a social media platform. The book has since sold approximately 800,000 copies, according to its publisher. Journalist and novelist Emily Gould has described the work as 'The Handmaid’s Tale for Gen Z,' highlighting its dystopian narrative and feminist perspective. The story centers on an unnamed narrator, one of 40 women held in an underground cage, overseen by men. After an unexplained incident leads to the guards' departure, the women escape to an unfamiliar, Earth-like world with no apparent civilization. The narrative explores the protagonist's experience of constructing an identity and understanding of the world without prior societal context. 
