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We Were Forbidden
  • Published: 20 October 2026
  • ISBN: 9781529984583
  • Imprint: Vintage Classics
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 96
  • RRP: $19.99

We Were Forbidden

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Embark on a BRIEF ENCOUNTER with Jacqueline Harpman, author of I Who Have Never Known Men, with this startling new collection of three never-before-translated stories, about orders given and defied.

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
  • Published: 20 October 2026
  • ISBN: 9781529984583
  • Imprint: Vintage Classics
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 96
  • RRP: $19.99

About the author

Jacqueline Harpman

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
JH

Also by Jacqueline Harpman

I Who Have Never Known Men
Orlanda
See all

Praise for We Were Forbidden

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

New York Times Book Review

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

Booklist

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.

Jessi Jezewska Stevens

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

Kirkus Reviews, starred review