A dark story in the shelter of memory

Jacqueline Harpman questions the collapse of civilization, the nature of power, and the invisible boundaries between genders in a simple but chilling language, and skillfully combines dystopia with philosophical narrative in her novel, I, Who Doesn't Know What a Man is, which was released to the readers in February under the Can Publications label.

Berke Toksan21 March 20261 min readupdated: 4 April 2026205 reads

A dark story in the shelter of memory:

By Jacqueline Harpman

The Me Who Doesn't Know What a Man is

Jacqueline Harpman describes the collapse of civilization, the nature of power and gender in her novel, I Who Doesn't Know What a Man Is, which met with the readers in February under the label Can Publications. While questioning the invisible boundaries between the two in a simple but chilling language, it skillfully combines dystopia with philosophical narrative.

Out of forty women living underground in a closed space, only one remains. This last witness, who does not know what happened to the outside world, begins to remember and tell about the past: A world where men existed, order reigned, and then slowly dissolved... Women tried to survive by following rules they did not know the meaning of, and they silently accepted the disappearance of men. As telling becomes the only way to survive, memory will turn into both a shelter and a threat.

“This dark story, which was almost completely forgotten after its publication in 1995 and tells about women held captive by men, is today being rediscovered by Generation Z as a modern The Handmaid's Tale.”

The Guardian

Book Title: I Who Doesn't Know What a Man is

Author: Jacqueline Harpman

Translation: S. İpek Ortaer Montanari

Publisher:Can Yayınları

Series:Modern

Genre:Novel

Number of Pages:184

Price:260 TL

Author

Berke Toksan

Sigortada Bugün'un kültür-sanat editörü. Sigorta sektörünün sosyal ve kültürel boyutunu ele alarak kurumsal sosyal sorumluluk projelerini, sektör etkinliklerini ve insan odaklı hikayeleri aktarıyor.

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