I Who Have Never Known Men

Thought provoking. Jacqueline Harpman sets up a world at once familiar and different. What happened? Where are they? The protagonist doesn't have a name, and at times her's is the view of an outsider. The book demonstrates the human mind's will to understand the world. Some catastrophe has happened, and 39 women and a young girl find themselves imprisoned underground. Nobody knows what happened, or how they got there. They are constantly under watch by silent guards that enforce unspoken rules through whips that lash out. Because the protagonist was so young when whatever catastrophe happened, she has no memory of the "before" world. This more than anything sets her apart from the other women. Something happens, while the guards were about to give the women a meal. The guards flee, but the keys are within reach and the women are freed from their cell. But where are they? What do they do now?