Matt Haig - The Humans

 

Matt Haig - The Humans 

4⭐

Genre: Fiction, Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Contemporary 

Pages: 285

Format:  Paperback

Publisher:  Canongate Books 

Date Published: 9th May 2018

A huge thank you to Canongate Books for sending me a copy of this book. 

 

Book Blurb: 

When an extraterrestrial visitor arrives on Earth, his first impressions of the human species are less than positive. Taking the form of Professor Andrew Martin, a leading mathematician at Cambridge University, the visitor wants to complete his task and return home to his planet and a utopian society of immortality and infinite knowledge.

He is disgusted by the way humans look, what they eat, and the wars they witness on the news, and is totally baffled by concepts such as love and family. But as time goes on, he starts to realize there may be more to this weird species than he has been led to believe. He drinks wine, reads Emily Dickinson, listens to Talking Heads, and begins to bond with the family he lives with, in disguise. In picking up the pieces of the professor's shattered personal life, the narrator sees hope and redemption in the humans' imperfections and begins to question the very mission that brought him there--a mission that involves not only thwarting human progress...but murder.

My Review: 

This is my second Matt Haig book and I must say I enjoyed it much more than the How To Stop Time. It was so well written and easy to read, with very multidimensional characters and a captivating storyline. I also loved how societal issues that we as humans face are presented by someone who is an outsider, which makes a reader look at them from an outsider's POV, too, to see them differently. I enjoyed the issues discussed in this book and how they were presented together with humour and wittiness. Although for some the plot might feel unrealistic, the book itself is entertaining, funny and yet full of important lessons to learn and philosophical statements and thoughts that are important to address, especially in the 21^st century.

The story follows an ET from a faraway planet who was sent to Earth on a mission. His mission is to kill a famous mathematician Professor Andrew Martin from Cambridge University and delete all of the breakthrough work that Andrew worked for throughout his career. The knowledge that Andrew uncovered might tell humans too much about other planets in the universe and the planets from which ET is, cannot allow that to happen. Thus ET takes over Andrew’s body and slowly learns about human nature, the way they talk, dress, love, and communicate. For him, all of these emotions and societal rules are very weird and rather disgusting. However, he meets some people who slowly start to change his opinion and he realises that humans aren’t as bad as he once thought.

Overall: This review is short because I don’t want to spoil anything from the book, and I will do so if I start discussing it in depth. However, it is a very well-written, unique funny, and at times silly book, with loads of important issues discussed in a very simple and entertaining way. My favourite of Matt Haig’s so far! 

About the Author:

Matt Haig is an author for children and adults. His memoir Reasons to Stay Alive was a number one bestseller, staying in the British top ten for 46 weeks. His children’s book A Boy Called Christmas was a runaway hit and is translated in over 40 languages. It is being made into a film starring Maggie Smith, Sally Hawkins and Jim Broadbent and The Guardian called it an ‘instant classic’. His novels for adults include  the award-winning How To Stop Time, The Radleys, The Humans and the number one bestseller The Midnight Library.He has sold over three million books worldwide.

http://www.matthaig.com/