Raised in a cage , with 39 other women, guarded day and night by silent guards, the narrator of this spell-binding tale has led a life of loneliness and confinement. But, when freedom beckons, is it everything it seems? In sparse, haunting prose, Jacqueline Harpman explores themes of femininity, power, our place within the universe and much more.

Picked by John

Discover the haunting, heartbreaking post-apocalyptic tale of female friendship and intimacy set in a deserted world. 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 and 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.