Book 152: The Humans by Matt Haig
Book 152: The Humans.
Author: Matt Haig, 2013.
Genre: Science Fiction. Comedy/Drama. Satire.
Other Details: Paperback. 294 pages.
After an 'incident' one wet Friday night where Professor Andrew Martin is found walking naked through the streets of Cambridge, he is not feeling quite himself. Food sickens him. Clothes confound him. Even his loving wife and teenage son are repulsive to him. He feels lost amongst a crazy alien species and hates everyone on the planet. Everyone, that is, except Newton, and he's a dog.
What could possibly make someone change their mind about the human race. . . ? - synopsis from UK publisher's website.
I found this a beautifully crafted tale of an alien who has stepped into the body and life of a Cambridge Maths professor in order to eradicate his ground-breaking work on prime numbers and to ensure that he has not advised anyone of this breakthrough.
It was a bitter-sweet tale of someone alienated from human life because he is encountering it for the first time. Matt Haig does a brilliant job of capturing Andrew-the-alien's' shift from this towards understanding and appreciating human life in all its messiness.
Overall. I felt this was a quirky, lovely novel. The Humans was chosen as one of the 20 books given away as part of World Book Night 2014.
Matt Haig's web page on ''The Humans' - includes extract and reviews.
Cross-posted to 50bookchallenge.