Life Before Man

Life Before Man by Margaret Atwood. First edition (1980). First impression. Medium format hardback in fine condition. No markings. Pages clean. Binding firm. Dust jacket in removable protective sleeve. 

 

About Life Before Man

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. "A particularly complicated love triangle sets this poetic Margaret Atwood novel in motion. Elizabeth and Nate, though habitually unfaithful to each other, have remained married for more than a decade. But after Elizabeth’s latest lover commits suicide, she emerges from her grief to find that her gentle, indecisive husband is on the verge of leaving her. He has become enamored of Lesje, a young paleontologist and perennial innocent who seems to prefers dinosaur fossils to humans. Elizabeth sets her sights on Lesje’s live-in boyfriend, William, and the ensuing emotional maelstrom threatens to upend all of their lives. Blending painful honesty with cutting satire, Margaret Atwood give us characters whose haunting dilemmas linger long after the final page." - Penguin