Matt Haig The Humans

[SuduNona]

The book is about someone who is not Professor Andrew Martin, not a forty three year old mathematician, husband or father, in fact is not human at all, though everybody thinks he is. And from this perspective, the habits of humans become quite bizarre as the alien in Andrew’s body, who comes from the planet Vonnadoria, begins to learn what it is like to be really human. As in all good stories of this kind, he saves the universe from the implications of a future discovery which will change their lives forever. Good stuff.

Andrew first, though, has to learn how to breathe, has predictable trouble with the language and is repelled by our food. He hates wearing clothes and ‘Rain was a terror of almost mythical proportions’ which meant that in order to succeed in his given quest, ‘I needed to find what I was looking for before the clouds opened…..’

Farfetched? Been done before? Well yes, but here it is done extremely well with a few unexpected twists and quirks which keep you turning the page. Haig treads the very fine line between alienating (pun intended) our empathy for his hero’s plight with a great dollop of humour exposing how we all perceive and behave, our blind arrogance and assumptions of superiority.

‘Humans, I was discovering, believed they were in control of their own lives, and so they were in awe of questions and tests, as these made them feel like they had a certain mastery over other people, who had failed in their choices, and who had not worked hard enough on the right answers. And by the end of the last failed test many were sat in a mental hospital swallowing a mind blanking pill called diazepam and placed in another empty room full of right angles.’

And if you are into mathematical theory you will appreciate the importance of Andrew’s quest to suppress the Riemann hypothesis while struggling to subdue his own growing human instincts. He starts to appreciate peanut butter, Debussy and Emily Dickinson, experience a realisation of fear and nightmares. Love develops for the woman who thinks she is his wife and he sensitively mends the fractured relationship with his supposed son, who likes him better in the end than his other real and disappeared Dad.

Haig does know what alienation feels like as he himself in 2000 suffered from a panic disorder and ‘Human life felt as strange for me as it does for the narrator.’ However, he doesn't regret that very personal hell but put it to good use showing that ‘Breakdown is very often breakthrough….'

I give this book three of our four for the fast paced, utterly credible plot, the quirks and twists and a great rip roaring read.