diff --git a/contrib/pyln-client/setup.py b/contrib/pyln-client/setup.py
index 8650962ea..5c4380317 100644
--- a/contrib/pyln-client/setup.py
+++ b/contrib/pyln-client/setup.py
@@ -1,5 +1,4 @@
 from setuptools import setup
-from pyln import client
 import io
 
 
@@ -9,8 +8,14 @@ with io.open('README.md', encoding='utf-8') as f:
 with io.open('requirements.txt', encoding='utf-8') as f:
     requirements = [r for r in f.read().split('\n') if len(r)]
 
+# setup shouldn't try to load module, so we hack-parse __init__.py
+with io.open('pyln/client/__init__.py', encoding='utf-8') as f:
+    for line in f.read().split('\n'):
+        if line.startswith('__version__ = "'):
+            version = line.split('"')[1]
+
 setup(name='pyln-client',
-      version=client.__version__,
+      version=version,
       description='Client library for lightningd',
       long_description=long_description,
       long_description_content_type='text/markdown',