Reading Olympics

I Who Have Never Known Men

Reading a book from every country of the world: Belgium

Photo by Miguel Alcântara on Unsplash

Each book is a journey, a new mystery waiting to be discovered. In this series, I am on an adventure of reading a book from every country of the world.

I think that storytelling is such an interesting craft. If we only read books written originally in our native language and by people from the same country as us, we don’t get to experience the full scope of what storytelling can be.

Reading books in translation, reading books from around the world, is introducing me to so many ways of telling stories. Most importantly, it is opening my horizons on cultures, traditions, and perspectives.

It’s like travelling the world without leaving my armchair, expanding my understanding of humanity and fostering empathy. These stories are windows into different souls, teaching me about the richness and complexity of human life.

For Belgium, I chose Jacqueline Harpman’s novel, I Who Have Never Known Men. This book is an allegory, a story that doesn’t directly describe Belgium but reveals something deeper about human experience.