I Who Have Never Known Men empathy vital homage to the natural

vital homage to the natural world

Yukino has lived alone in an old gloomy single-family home

characterizes local scenes

Erpenbeck describes the path of the two lovers

In the opinion of her superbly gifted translator Michael Hofmann

I Who Have Never Known Men empathy vital homage to the natural"As far back as I can recall, I have been in the bunker." A young woman is kept in a cage underground with thirty nine other females, guarded by armed men who never speak; her crimes unremembered if indeed there were crimes. The youngest of fortya child with no name and no pastshe survives for some purpose long forgotten in a world ravaged and wasted. In this reality where intimacy is forbiddenin the unrelenting sameness of the artificial days and