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Summary
Summary
The critically acclaimed author of The Radleys shares a clever, heartwarming, and darkly insightful novel about an alien who comes to Earth to save humans from themselves.
"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. For those that don't know, a human is a real bipedal life form of midrange intelligence, living a largely deluded existence on a small waterlogged planet in a very lonely corner of the universe."
The bestselling, award-winning author of The Radleys is back with what may be his best, funniest, and most devastating dark comedy yet. 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 prominent mathematician at Cambridge University, the visitor is eager to complete the gruesome task assigned him and hurry back home to the utopian world of his own planet, where everyone enjoys immortality and infinite knowledge.
He is disgusted by the way humans look, what they eat, their capacity for murder and war, and is equally baffled by the concepts of 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. Disguised as Martin, he drinks wine, reads poetry, develops an ear for rock music and a taste for peanut butter. Slowly, unexpectedly, he forges bonds with Martin's family, and in picking up the pieces of the professor's shattered personal life, he begins to see hope and beauty in the humans' imperfections and begins to question the mission that brought him there.
Praised by the New York Times as a "novelist of great seriousness and talent," author Matt Haig delivers an unlikely story about human nature and the joy found in the messiness of life on Earth. The Humans is a funny, compulsively readable tale that playfully and movingly explores the ultimate subject--ourselves.
Author Notes
Matt Haig was born on July 3, 1975 in Sheffield. He attended the University of Hull where he studied English and History. He has since become a British novelist and journalist. He has authored both fiction and non-fiction for children and adults. His non-fiction title "Reasons to Stay Alive" became a Sunday Times bestseller. His bestselling children's novel, A Boy Called Christmas is now being adapted for film. His other works include: The Last Family in England, The Dead Fathers Club, Shadow Forest, The Possession of Mr. Cave, How to Stop Time and Runaway Troll.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (5)
Publisher's Weekly Review
In 1859, German mathematician Bernard Riemann put forth a hypothesis that prime numbers have a pattern. In 2012, an unnamed alien is sent to Earth to ensure the hypothesis is never proven. The Vonnadorians wish to prevent humans from gaining knowledge before they are psychologically prepared for the advancements that would ensue. The invader inhabits the body of Andrew Martin, the arrogant and selfish mathematician who discovered the proof to Riemann's hypothesis; at first disgusted and confused by his human shell, the alien is eventually transformed, and the more time he spends with Andrew's wife and son, the more he comes to doubt his mission. Haig (The Radleys) creates a delightful sense of displacement in "Andrew" and draws the reader into the experiences that make us human, ugly, wonderful, and mundane by turns. While at times the novel is sentimental, the wonder and humor with which the protagonist approaches life, and the many emotions and discoveries he experiences, are worth getting a bit weepy over. Agent: Andrea Joyce, Canongate. (July) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Guardian Review
Professor Andrew Martin of Cambridge University, one of the great mathematical geniuses of our time, has just discovered the secret of prime numbers, thereby finding the key that will unlock the mysteries of the universe, guarantee a giant technological leap for mankind and put an end to illness and death. 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. That's the backstory to a book that opens with our alien narrator finding himself in the body of the professor, whom he has just assassinated. But the instantaneous intergalactic travel hasn't turned out quite as expected. 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. Promptly run over, the naked alien hero regenerates, escapes from the shocked ambulance crew and heads to the nearest building - a weirdly rectangular and bizarrely static refuelling station labelled Texaco. Having flicked through a copy of Cosmopolitan to pick up the local language, he then makes his way to Cambridge. Here he continues to inspire much shouting and pointing until he reaches the ex-professor's college, where he is arrested. These initial attempts to fit into human society may not have been completely successful, but they improve a little, thanks not only to his superior Vonnadorian intelligence but also to the fact that the late Professor Martin was evidently the kind of mathematical genius who could quite conceivably have had a breakdown that would leave him running around Corpus Christi college in the nude. Stilted and strange though the alien's speech and behaviour continue to be, Martin's wife and teenage son spot hardly any difference from the original, save for some hilarious efforts to match the son's swearing and the suspicious way he bothers to put his used crockery in the dishwasher. Actually, the Vonnadorian seems to offer an improved version of the human husband and father. The alien in turn, at first baffled and disgusted by humans, grows increasingly attached to his Earth family. This presents a real problem, given that the mission is to kill them both. As this story develops, so the narrator and his narration change. 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. The conceit may not be original (it was back in the 70s that Craig Raine's Martian sent a postcard home, and the aliens rolled around their spaceship laughing at humans' potato-bashing in the Smash advert), but Haig uses it superbly. As our alien's emotional attachment grows, so too do his reflections on the odd appeal of our short and brutish lives, and especially on our gift for love. 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. It would be very difficult to raise such reflections ("80. Language is euphemism. 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. 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. For all its later outbreaks of Vonnadorian mawkishness, The Humans still deserves to live long and prosper. Harry Ritchie's The Third Party is published by Hodder & Stoughton. To order The Humans for pounds 9.99 with free UK p&p call Guardian book service on 0330 333 6846 or go to guardian.co.uk/bookshop - Harry Ritchie That's the backstory to a book that opens with our alien narrator finding himself in the body of the professor, whom he has just assassinated. But the instantaneous intergalactic travel hasn't turned out quite as expected. Instead of finding himself in [Andrew 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. As this story develops, so the narrator and his narration change. 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. The conceit may not be original (it was back in the 70s that Craig Raine's Martian sent a postcard home, and the aliens rolled around their spaceship laughing at humans' potato-bashing in the Smash advert), but Haig uses it superbly. As our alien's emotional attachment grows, so too do his reflections on the odd appeal of our short and brutish lives, and especially on our gift for love. 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. - Harry Ritchie.
Kirkus Review
A fish-out-of water mashup where the water is Earth, and the fish is an extraterrestrial. Professor Andrew Martin has solved the Riemann hypothesis. A mathematical problem of fiendish difficulty, it explains the distribution of prime numbers. This is big news in a galaxy far, far away. The Vonnadorians, in their wisdom, believe we humans are unprepared for this breakthrough. They are so concerned, in fact, they kidnap Professor Martin, of Cambridge University, and send a Vonnadorian to destroy the proof and kill everyone Martin informed. Alien/Martin assumes the shape and identity of human/Martin to insinuate himself into the world. Our alien assassin is narrator and protagonist. And in spite of extraordinary Vonnadorian technology, he is, to quote Foghorn Leghorn, about as sharp as a bag of wet mice, and a softie to boot. He falls away from the rational principles of his distant world, develops a taste for crunchy whole-nut peanut butter and Australian wine, admiration for "his" dog, Newton, love for "his" wife, Isobel, and Gulliver, "his" angst-y teen son. Haig goes all-in on the alien-goes-native humor, and then he goes further. Turns out, human/Martin was an arrogant jerk, while alien/Martin falls hard for our little blue planet, for our contradictions and our mortality, our joys and our follies, for the Beach Boys and Emily Dickinson. Alien/Martin becomes more expert on us humans than dozens of self-helpbook authors: "I felt blue with sadness, red with rage and green with envy. I felt the entire human rainbow." A saccharine novel.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
*Starred Review* The alien comes to Earth from Vonnadoria, an almost incomprehensibly advanced world; he comes with a sinister purpose, both to destroy and to collect information, hoping to rob human beings of their future. Assuming the person of Professor Andrew Martin, a celebrated mathematician who has made a dangerous discovery, he sets coldly and calculatedly to work. But there is a problem: though disgusted at first by humans, whom he regards as motivated only by violence and greed, he gradually comes to understand that humans are more complex than that, and, most dangerous to his mission, he discovers music, poetry, and . . . love. Becoming increasingly sympathetic to humans, he will ultimately do the unthinkable. The ever-imaginative Haig The Dead Fathers Club (2007), The Radleys (2010) has created an extraordinary alien sensibility and, though writing with a serious purpose (the future is at stake), has great good fun with the being's various eyebrow-raising blunders as he struggles to emulate human behavior. Haig strikes exactly the right tone of bemusement, discovery, and wonder in creating what is ultimately a sweet-spirited celebration of humanity and the trials and triumphs of being human. The result is a thought-provoking, compulsively readable delight.--Cart, Michael Copyright 2010 Booklist
Library Journal Review
In Haig's (The Radleys) latest, Andrew Martin, a British mathematician with a messy home life has made a discovery that an alien race with an advanced culture wants to keep secret. One of the aliens is sent to Earth to assume Martin's identity and destroy his research. The alien is intent on his mission, especially after his encounters with humans and their violent, backward ways. But with the help of Emily Dickinson's poetry and some unexpected emotions, Faux-Andrew is transformed by his experience. Mark Meadows's bemused delivery makes for an enjoyable listen. Verdict Recommended.-Kelly Sinclair, Temple P.L., TX (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
