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Orlanda

Jacqueline Harpman was born in Etterbeek, Belgium in 1929. Being half Jewish, the family fled to Casablanca when the Nazis invaded, and only returned home after the war. After studying French literature she started training to be a doctor, but could not complete her training due to contracting tuberculosis. She turned to writing in 1954 and her first work was published in 1958. In 1980 she qualified as a psychoanalyst. Harpman wrote over 15 novels and won numerous literary prizes, including the Prix Médicis for Orlanda. I Who Have Never Known Men was her first novel to be translated into English, and was originally published with the title The Mistress of Silence

'THE ’90S GENDER SWAP NOVEL YOU NEED TO READ NOW' (NEW YORK TIMES), FROM THE AUTHOR OF I WHO HAVE NEVER KNOWN MEN 
 
There’s a voice in Aline’s head: a voice that wants out. 
 
Brash, boisterous and sexually adventurous, this voice seems to be the antithesis of Aline, a prim literature professor for whom each day promises to be as quiet and conventional as the last. 
 
That is until, after thirty-five years of imprisonment, her alter ego breaks free. 
 
Taking on a life of his own, Orlanda – Aline’s second self – slips into the taut, rugged body of a young man. As Aline continues unaware, Orlanda follows, dragging gleeful chaos in his wake, vowing to leave both their existences forever altered. 
 
A bewitching fable, an androgynous dream, Orlanda is one woman’s reckoning with all the hidden sides of her soul. 
--- 
READER REVIEWS - JOIN THE ORLANDA OBSESSION: 
'Hilarious, life affirming, haunting…truly perfect in prose, plot, and concept. Just wow' 
'A powerful novel, witty, wicked and teasing' 
'It’s the perfect book' 
'This is the second book I've read by her and it's another masterpiece' 
'Reading this has confirmed Jacqueline Harpman as one of my favourite writers I’ve ever encountered'

I Who Have Never Known Men

Deluxe Edition

It is a novel about community, loneliness, and solitude, about intellectual awakening in impossible situations. It asks... What does it mean to be alive, to learn, to know?

A novel that takes you into philosophically interesting territory… this [is a] intriguingly dark thought experiment told by a compellingly alien voice – dispassionate and unfussy – is strangely fascinating

A vivid evocation of another world, alive with hope and dignity

Megan Hunter, author of The End We Start From

A bleak but fascinating postapocalyptic novel… all the loneliness and oblivion of a deserted world won't stop us from following the narrator as far as she can go

SISTERHOOD. SECRETS. SURVIVAL. 
 
Discover the haunting, heart-breaking post-apocalyptic TikTok sensation, now available in a beautiful hardback gift edition. 
 
Deep underground, thirty-nine women are kept in isolation in a cage. Above ground, a world awaits. Has it been abandoned? Devastated by a virus? 
 
Watched over by guards, the women have no memory of how they got there, no notion of time, and only vague recollection of their lives before. But, as the burn of electric light merges day into night and numberless years pass, a young girl - the fortieth prisoner - sits alone an outcast in the corner. 
 
Soon she will show herself to be the key to the others' escape and survival in the strange world that awaits them above ground. The woman who will never know men. 
 
WITH A NEW INTRODUCTION BY SOPHIE MACKINTOSH, BOOKER PRIZE-LONGLISTED AUTHOR OF THE WATER CURE 
 
Discover the reader obsession. 
 
**Orlanda, the next sensation from Jacquline Harpman, is available now**

A House of Ruin

From the author of I WHO HAVE NEVER KNOWN MEN 
 
A subtly unsettling, mesmerising tale following a secretive family of matriarchs. 
 
After his car breaks down on a dark country lane, a lone male architect is stranded in the depths of the French backcountry. The only house for miles is a crumbling 18th-century mansion, exquisite despite its disrepair. With one knock at the door, he finds himself propelled into a bewitching all-female household. 
 
But when marriage brings an unwelcome intruder into this ragged matriarchy, the family will stop at nothing to defend their home and their freedoms - by any means necessary.

Jacqueline Harpman

Ros Schwartz

Dystopian literary surrealism from a master who’s belatedly getting her due.

Another stunning missive from Harpman’s repertoire… Renewed interest in Harpman’s oeuvre isn’t just warranted: In works like this, she reveals herself to be one of the major writers of the 20th century, comparable to Gogol and Kafka but with a style and outlook entirely her own

These tales showcase a new side of Harpman’s prose... Full of nuance and spite, and true to Harpman’s beloved style

In Harpman’s desperate, ornery, and alien universes, her avatars write their memoirs for no one at all. It is a desolate prospect, but also a triumph.

A startling new collection of three never-before-translated stories, from the author of I Who Have Never Known Men 
 
In the wake of some unfathomable war, a woman wanders the forest, forbidden from ever leaving its strange depths. As part of her rigid schooling, a teenage girl is barred from questioning the dogma she is taught to believe. Locked in a loveless marriage, a young woman satisfies her husband’s desires, twice-weekly, as directed – until she begins to pursue her own. 
 
Includes the stories: The Ardennes Forest, The Outcast and The Broom Cupboard 
 
BRIEF ENCOUNTERS: classic novellas and captivating stories, to be read in a single sitting or savoured over days

Jacqueline Harpman

Books by Jacqueline Harpman

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A beginner’s guide to translated fiction

The classics making waves on TikTok

Must-read sci-fi classics

What to read after The Handmaid’s Tale

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