Dreams Before the Start of Time Audiobook (Free)

Within a near-future London, Millie Dack sites her hand on her belly to feel her baby kick, resolute in her decision to be always a single parent. Across town, her closest friend—a hungover Toni Munroe—techniques in to the shower and locations her hand on a medic console. The diagnosis is usually devastating.

In this stunning, bittersweet family saga, Millie and Toni experience the aftershocks of human improvement as their children and grandchildren embrace new ways of building babies. When infertility is something of days gone by, a man can create a kid without a female, a female can create a child without a man, and artificial wombs get rid of the challenges of pregnancy. But what does it suggest to be a parent? A child? A family?

Through a series of interconnected vignettes that spans five generations and three continents, this emotionally taut story explores the anxieties that arise when the science of fertility claims to deliver all the answers.