The Humans

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although it was written to Gulliver from Andrew, I loved the chapter titled "Advice for a human" (very poignant).

After an 'incident' one wet Friday night where he is found walking naked through the streets of Cambridge, Professor Andrew Martin is not feeling quite himself. Love is truth") above the level of the " Desiderata" poster or the sort of wry and twinkly conclusions about what it means to be human that Spock was often subjected to at the end of a Star Trek episode. Let us open our minds entirely, for what you are about to read will need every prejudice you may have to stand aside in the name of understanding. His mission is to kill anyone that might know about the mathematical equation but things don't go as planned. Here he continues to inspire much shouting and pointing until he reaches the ex-professor's college, where he is arrested.Alerted to this amazing breakthrough on the other side of the universe, and convinced that the secret of primes cannot be entrusted to such a violent and backward species as humans, the super-advanced Vonnadorians dispatch an emissary to erase Martin and all traces of his discovery. But he soon grows deeply fond of humans' capacity for forgiveness, for caring, and for hope--despite their finite life years. A beguiling read, filled with warmth and humour, and a vibrant celebration of the power of books to change lives. A brilliant exploration of what it is to love, and to be human, The Humans is both heartwarming and hilarious, weird, and utterly wonderful. Much of the first half of the novel is taken up by his puzzled analyses of primitive human ways: the nightly news, he reckons, should be renamed The War and Money Show; getting drunk is how humans forget they are mortal, while hangovers are how they remember.

For example, while watching the news on TV, he discovered “The news was prioritized in a way I could not understand. In a Matt Haig trademark 'this story is bigger than you think' style, he takes a look at humanity from the external viewpoint of an alien that has removed the professor from his body and taking it over to execute his mission to limit the progress of Human civilisation. When an extraterrestrial visitor arrives on Earth, his first impressions of the human species are less than positive. it should more accurately have been titled The War and Money Show” The alien showed how ridiculous we can be and how we needlessly torture ourselves.The naïve protagonist, though very curious, was first and foremost disgusted by the way humans look, especially because of their protruding noses.

I know that some of you reading this are convinced humans are a myth, but I am here to state that they do actually exist. He goes on about this, often and at some length, culminating in a letter of advice he bequeaths to the son – a 97-point list six and a half pages long.I enjoyed this story by Matt Haig so much more than his book The Midnight Library (see my review at https://www. I know that I’m for sure going to read more books of Matt Haig’s now, because he’s simply too good an author to not be further explored. For all its later outbreaks of Vonnadorian mawkishness, The Humans still deserves to live long and prosper. Haig’s unexpectedly raw tale of love, belonging, and peanut butter… It’s funny, clever and quite, quite lovely. At first glance no alien race would be able to resist the temptation to exterminate a dangerous, almost rabid, species like ours.

This book shows how the universe can send in their best, most logical, most clinical and advanced soldier but it's no match for us wonderful humans. A protuberant central nose, thin-skinned lips, primitive external auditory organs known as ‘ears’, tiny eyes and unfathomably pointless eye brows. Instead of finding himself in Martin's office, our nameless Vonnadorian has arrived in the middle of the M11, with no understanding of human culture and wearing his victim's body but not a stitch of clothing.The alien possesses the mathematician who proves the hypothesis, a professor at a prestigious university, who is also having a lot of family problems. Haig uses the alien’s innocence mixed with intelligence to make the reader think about our basic values, social mores, and cultural aspects. They have developed technology at a rate too fast for human psychology to keep up with, and yet they still pursue advancement for advancement's sake, and for the pursuit of money and fame they all crave so much. However, it's a mark of how funny and clever the rest of his novel is that Haig just about gets away with the love-is-truth guff. Matt Haig is a must-read author for me, as his books make me feel understood, uplifted, and - you guessed it - human.