{"product_id":"we-were-forbidden","title":"We Were Forbidden","description":"\u003cp\u003eby Jaqueline Harpman, translated by Ros Schwartz\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTransit Books\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e7\/7\/2026, paperback\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSKU: \u003cspan id=\"pd-product-id\"\u003e9798893380583\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eFrom the bestselling author of \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/burningbooks.com\/products\/i-who-have-never-known-men\" title=\"I Who Have Never Known Men\"\u003e\u003ci\u003eI Who Have Never Known Men\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e comes a startling trio of novellas--translated into English for the first time--each plumbing the depths of that vital human instinct: defiance.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn the wake of some unfathomable war, a woman wanders the forest. She and her fellow survivors are forbidden from leaving its boundaries or pausing in their eternal march through its strange depths.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAttending a rigid French school in 1940s Casablanca, a teenage girl is barred from ever questioning the dogma she is taught to believe--her punishment for doing so will be as swift as it is shocking.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLocked in a loveless marriage in the Belgian bourgeoisie, a young woman satisfies her husband's desires, twice weekly, as required. She has not yet thought to pursue her own.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThese novellas--the first works by Jacqueline Harpman to arrive in English in decades--reveal her incredible stylistic range and demonstrate once more her penetrating psychological insight. Here we find the origins of a singular, relentless voice.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eReviews:\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"Enigmatic and cartwheeling. Harpman's splendid novellas explore refusal in its collective and personal forms--a piercing commentary on human compulsions to duty.\" -- \u003ci\u003eForeword Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e, starred review\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"For readers who first met Harpman via her melancholic digital afterlife, \u003cem\u003eWe Were Forbidden\u003c\/em\u003e will arrive as a revelation... Her books attest to the potential for solitary selves to meet, merge, and multiply, producing something more beautiful and enduring than they can alone.\" -- Katy Waldman, \u003cem\u003eThe New Yorker\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"Across these works, Harpman traces variations of the same psychic drama. Her dystopias diagnose the mind under pressure... Having lived through displacement, illness, and the violence of institutions, Harpman understands how quickly prohibitions take root. The world may collapse, but the mind continues to enforce its codes.\" -- Petya K. Grady, The Believer\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAbout the Contributors:\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eJacqueline Harpman\u003c\/b\u003e was born in Etterbeek, Belgium, in 1929. Her 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 \u003ci\u003eOrlanda\u003c\/i\u003e. \u003ci\u003eI Who Have Never Known Men\u003c\/i\u003e was her first novel to be translated into English, and was originally published with the title \u003ci\u003eThe Mistress of Silence\u003c\/i\u003e. Harpman died in 2012.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eRos Schwartz\u003c\/b\u003e has translated numerous works of fiction and non-fiction from French, including Jacqueline Harpman's \u003ci\u003eI Who Have Never Known Men\u003c\/i\u003e, several Georges Simenon titles for Penguin Classics, a new translation of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's \u003ci\u003eThe Little Prince\u003c\/i\u003e and, most recently, Mireille Gansel's \u003ci\u003eTranslation as Transhumance\u003c\/i\u003e. The recipient of a number of awards, she was made a Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2009 and received the Institute of Translation and Interpreting's John Sykes Memorial Prize for Excellence in 2017.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Burning Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53456375251227,"sku":"We Were Forbidden","price":18.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0466\/5121\/files\/916CUMHHT1L._SL1500.jpg?v=1787001246","url":"https:\/\/burningbooks.com\/products\/we-were-forbidden","provider":"Burning Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}