Life Before Man is a tragicomic tale of love seeking to find its way in the wake of death from the bestselling author of The Handmaid's Tale and The Testaments Elizabeth has just lost her latest lover to suicide while Nate, her husband, is working up to run off with Lesje. And Lesje? She would rather be studying dinosaurs than distracted by men. As Elizabeth, Nate and Lesje find themselves imprisoned by walls of their own construction the ghost of Elizabeth's dead lover hangs over them. Under his shadow, and in the spell of love, their lives will collide and entangle towards a single tragicomic climax. 'Tender, funny, absorbing, idiosyncratic, truthful, heartening... A liberating novel' Literary Review