Three years later In the United States, Cole and her twelve-year-old son, Miles are trying to flee to their home in South Africa.

The pandemic is dubbed "Manfall", and most countries outlaw pregnancies and close their borders to safeguard future generations until a cure for the virus can be found.

After days on the road, they encounter a bus full of "nuns" who have formed a cult they call the Sisters of the Church of All Sorrows.

[4] He questioned whether American readers are ready for "a pandemic novel" at this point in their lives, but added "probably", considering that COVID-19 pales against Afterland's "manpocalypse" where boys are a "natural resource" and sperm bootlegging is illegal.

[7] The magazine said Cole and Miles's mother-and-son duo is the heart of this "harrowing tale", and added that "Beukes is a gifted storyteller who makes it thrillingly easy for readers to fall under her spell as she weaves a hypnotic vision of a fractured world without men.

"[7] Writing in New Scientist, Sally Adee called Afterland a "rare creature" that "neither shies away from big questions nor interesting answers".

[8] She said the book draws on themes from Alderman's The Power, James's The Children of Men and Le Guin's The Left Hand of Darkness, and it "shines as one of the best thought experiments of its kind".