For Belgium, I read I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman. In this story, forty women are locked in a prison cell in an underground bunker, guarded by silent men. No one remembers how or why they came to be imprisoned.

I do not want to say too much about this book for fear of spoiling it. I will say that I thoroughly enjoyed it, and that Harpman made me think a lot about what it means to be human. I’m still wondering how to classify this work–speculative? post-apocalyptic? sci-fi? feminist? literary?–and I suppose that is one of the reasons this book made me think so much.

The word that kept popping into my head while reading I Who Have Never Known Men was “spare.” The author gave us just enough details to imagine the characters and setting, and that was it. There was nothing lush or cozy about this book. I felt like I was right there, in the underground bunker, baffled by silent guards in a world closed off from seasons, time, and humanity.

When people ask how I’m picking my books for my Read Around the World quest, I often say that first I’m looking for an author from the country and second I’m looking for books set in that country. Now that I’ve finished Belgium, I can fine tune my response.

First, I’m looking for an author from the country, hopefully someone who lived there for a significant amount of time. Then, if I have a lot of choices, I’m looking for the book that calls to me. Sometimes, the book that calls to me will be set in the country. But sometimes, like with Belgium, I feel called to read something set in an underground bunker with some strong post-apocalyptic vibes. I’m exploring the world with this project but I’m also expanding my reading horizons to discover authors that were not on my radar.

I’m so glad that my Read Around the World quest brought this book into my life. I can’t wait to convince a friend to read it so we can obsess about it together.