Before You Met Me: A Memoir of One Man’s Troubled Search for Love

No matter how hard he tried, Alan Close couldn’t stay in a relationship. Then, at the age of 43, after yet another breakup, he decided he was going to find out what was going wrong and make a change. What followed was a painful yet ultimately revelatory process of looking back into the past – where memories of his childhood and early relationships where darkened by a long-forgotten secret he had failed to admit even to himself… A man has never written about relationships in this way. Lyrical, humorous but always frank and insightful, this new book by novelist and former columnist for Good Weekend takes us inside what it is to be a man today. Close explores his relationships, affairs, family history, and struggle with an eating disorder in his quest for intimacy and peace with the past. Along the way he reveals much about the psychology of men and their attitudes towards relationships. Beautifully written, in a narrative that is utterly compelling, this is a non-fiction first – a male memoir about relationships that is impossible to put down, sure to hold up a mirror to male readers and provide a rare insight to women.