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Cover of Life Before Man

Life Before Man

Margaret Atwood (1979)

SubgenreMagical Realism
Age groupAdult 18+
Content ratingR
Pages (Standard (250-400))
Setting
CSM age18+
Goodreads3.38

Content levels

ViolenceMild
Sexual contentModerate
LanguageModerate

Protagonist archetypes

Multiple POVs

Synopsis

Imprisoned by walls of their own construction, here are three people, each in midlife, in midcrisis, forced to make choices--after the rules have changed. Elizabeth, with her controlled sensuality, her suppressed rage, is married to the wrong man. She has just lost her latest lover to suicide. Nate, her gentle, indecisive husband, is planning to leave her for Lesje, a perennial innocent who prefers dinosaurs to men. Hanging over them all is the ghost of Elizabeth's dead lover...and the dizzying threat of three lives careening inevitably toward the same climax.

Tags

Literary FictionPsychological DramaContemporary FictionCharacter Study