Matt Haig

Regarding humans unfavorably upon arriving on Earth, a reluctant extraterrestrial assumes the identity of a Cambridge mathematician before realizing that there is more to the human race than he suspected and embarking on a darkly comic effort to save humanity from itself. By the award-winning author of The Radleys. 40,000 first printing.

A Novel

The Humans

Regarding humans unfavorably upon arriving on Earth, a reluctant extraterrestrial assumes the identity of a Cambridge mathematician before realizing that there's more to the human race than he suspected.

sam kruczek

Love is what the humans are all about but they don't understand it. If they understood it, then it would disappear.

but the humans still spent half their time in đeep shadow. This, I was sure, was one of the chief reasons tor personal and sexual, relationships here. The need to find comfort in the dark. And it was a comfort, being next to her. So I just stayed there, hearing her breath…

 "Well, maybe we should not try to understand so much, and accept some more.

Anda

Don't ever be afraid of telling someone you love them. There are things wrong with your world, but an excess of love is not one.

If getting drunk was how people forgot they were mortal, then hangovers were how they remembered.

Make sure, as often as possible, you are doing something you’d be happy to die doing.

To experience beauty on earth you need to experience pain and to know mortality.

She said being human is being a young child on Christmas Day who receives an absolutely magnificent castle. And there is a perfect photograph of this castle on the box and you want more than anything to play with the castle and the knights and the princesses because it looks like such a perfectly human world, but the only problem is that the castle isn’t built. It’s in tiny intricate pieces, and although there’s a book of instructions you don’t understand it. And nor can your parents or Aunt Sylvie. So you are just left, crying at the ideal castle on the box which no one would ever be able to build.

Harley

Becca

THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE HOME. OR IS THERE? 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. Food sickens him. Clothes confound him. Even his loving wife and teenage son are repulsive to him. He feels lost amongst an alien species and hates everyone on the planet. Everyone, that is, except Newton, and he's a dog.Who is he really? And what could make someone change their mind about the human race . . . ?

Julie Rubens

I loved this book! I’ve always wanted to read a book like this questioning if humans are good or bad etc. The book was really well written and I absolutely loved the storyline! Especially the first part of the book was also just really funny and the last half was just beautiful and sweet. It was so well thought of and I love the characters! Also, I really liked his love for Emily Dickinson.

The bestselling, award-winning author of The Radleys is back with his funniest, most devastating dark comedy yet, a “silly, sad, suspenseful, and soulful” (Philadelphia Inquirer) novel that’s “full of heart” (Entertainment Weekly). When an extra-terrestrial 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 home to his own utopian planet, where everyone is omniscient and immortal. 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 strange species than he had thought. 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. He begins to see hope and beauty in the humans’ imperfection, and begins to question the very 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.

“A paradox: The things you don’t need to live—books, art, cinema, wine, and so on—are the things you need to live.”
--------------------
We humans are a strange species, no doubt about it. Full of quirks, shortcomings, contradictions, illogical urges, hopes, and a weird cocktail of hormones.
And sometimes, you have to see yourself (the humankind) through someone else’s (alien) eyes to appreciate the chaotic beauty and misery that makes you special. This book was written to do just that.
Equally amusing and reflective, The Humans is a feel-good journey from the first page that will get you giggling out loud as well as feeling emotional. Although, the story becomes too full of a self-help/self-appreciation/isn’t-life-so-precious vibes (especially towards the end), it is an enjoyable read nonetheless.

In conclusion, I guess I don't like self-help life philosophy books unless they are disguised as a Matt Haig story.
(Also, I feel like fans of 3rd Rock From the Sun might get a particular kick out of reading this one, as the concepts seem somewhat similar to me.)

3.5/5

Syahla Aurel

I think Matt Haig will be my next favorite author. I liked the way he wrote the story from the alien perspective and still managed to be funny and deep at the same time. I didn't expect there would be a lot of math references (my worst subject), but it was still easy to understand, lol. I recommend this book if you want a heartwarming story that will make you laugh.

Mia Caven

ah. Matt Haig. Matt Haig does it once again. An insanely incredible book. It is a beautiful simple story of such deep meaning. Matt Haig is an insanely good writer and these stories are the most heart warming, cleverly written stories. Another win for Haig.

Alan

Very heavy handed on its views, despite it not saying much new. And plot felt like a rerun of what I've read before.

Bilge Ince

You don’t have to be an academic. You don’t have to be anything. Don’t force it. Feel your way, and don’t stop feeling your way until something fits. Maybe nothing will. Maybe you are a road, not a destination. That is fine. Be a road. But make sure it’s one with something to look at out of the window. 

I believe this is the best book I have read from Matt Haig. His quirky and witty mind came with an alien in observer mode on the Earth. And his observations were not only the pure truth but also humorous and emotional. I felt sadness and joy at the same time while I was reading. And also felt that nothing is important, yet everything is important.

Isabella

THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE HOME. OR IS THERE? 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. . . ?

Matt Litwin

It’s a poor imitation for a Kurt Vonnegut book, trying to balance the dark cynicism of an aliens view of humanity with the lighthearted “‘the real meaning of life is the friends we made along the way”

Lisa de Groot

menna

Midori Kobayashi

5/5stars


Humans, as a rule, don't like mad people unless they are good at painting, and only then once they are dead. But the definition of mad, on Earth, seems to be very unclear and inconsistent. What is perfectly sane in one era turns out to be insane in another. The earliest humans walked around naked with no problem. Certain humans, in humid rainforests mainly, still do so. So, we must conclude that madness is sometimes a question of time, and sometimes of postcode.

Basically, the key rule is, if you want to appear sane on Earth you have to be in the right place, wearing the right clothes, saying the right things, and only stepping on the right kind of grass



This was such an interesting, enjoyable, funny read, I'm mad at myself for not picking it up earlier. And when I say funny I mean, I literally laugh out loud, burst into fits of laughter at every second page of it and it's so freaking hilarious I just cannot stop laughing kind of funny. Tho the second half of the book tends to get more serious and philosophical, it still had it's fair share of humour. 



Make sure, as often as possible, you are doing something you’d be happy to die doing.



For those of you who don't know this is a story about humans, from the perspective of an alien who has come on this planet for a mission. He doesn't know anything about the ways of humans and so he learns things the hard way and the story goes on from there. 



If you think something is ugly, look harder. Ugliness is just a failure of seeing.



Before someone points it out, lemme just come right out and say it, the plot is somewhat absurd and pointless, but hey we're here for the alien's interpretation of the human world and lifestyle, and maybe for the dog, nothing else. That aside, this book is a must must read. 



To be a human is to state the obvious. Repeatedly. Over and over, until the end of time.



Oh and the end, the "list"- THAT WAS SO GOOD, CHERRY ON THE CAKE, LOVED IT SO MUCH. I am most certainly going to get my dog cover copy of it and annotate the hell out of it. Matt Haig is definitely on the way to become my new fav author after this and The Midnight Library, both of them being 5star favourites of this year!



To experience beauty on Earth, you needed to experience pain and to know mortality. That is why so much that is beautiful on this planet has to do with time passing and the Earth turning. Which might also explain why to look at such natural beauty was to also feel sadness and a craving for a life unlived.




  CWs for the book: Suicide, Depression, Anxiety, Mind/Body control, Murder, Death, Infidelity.

I actually thoroughly enjoyed this one! Wasn’t expecting much, and perhaps that played into its perceived grandeur, but it turned out to be quite the page-turner. I read pages 121-278 in the same sitting. 

I’d been falling away from my normally romantic outlook on life and humanity. Every day felt duller than the last. This book reminded me of life’s simple joys, its contrasting dualities, and the complexities of human nature that all make this worldly experience worthwhile. It feels like life has color again. 

I could go on about the depth and layering and poetic devices and all the things I loved that made its reading so engaging, but instead I’ll just say this: it’s worth the read.

samantha

I actually thoroughly enjoyed this one! Wasn’t expecting much, and perhaps that played into its perceived grandeur, but it turned out to be quite the page-turner. I read pages 121-278 in the same sitting. 

I’d been falling away from my normally romantic outlook on life and humanity. Every day felt duller than the last. This book reminded me of life’s simple joys, its contrasting dualities, and the complexities of human nature that all make this worldly experience worthwhile. It feels like life has color again. 

I could go on about the depth and layering and poetic devices and all the things I loved that made its reading so engaging, but instead I’ll just say this: it’s worth the read.

Esslam Ben Ramadan

I think the general idea with this book is to go into it without any expectations and give it a little time. There are some gems in here and some sage advise that are shared as part of the story but can be used as guidelines for all aspects of life.

Jayme Bosio

This book was beautiful and funny and romantic and sad. I absolutely loved it. Damn you, Sara!

Dave Perkins

I just love this guy. Such a beautiful reflection on humanity.

Sian Wadey

** spoiler alert **
           This was a slow starter for me, but once I got into it I must have devoured it in about two days. 
The premise it quite unusual, an alien is sent to Earth to inhabit the body of Andrew Martin in order to prevent the leak of his ground breaking prime number theory. 
I must admit, the majority of the maths stuff went over my head, but that's fine, maths doesn't interest me greatly but I gather that it's important. 
What I did enjoy was the alien trying to assimilate to human life, learning about clothes and social etiquette and realising that there is more to the language than spoken word. 
This book essentially sums up what it is like to be human, the things we enjoy, the actions we take to enjoy, being loved, being taken care of, belonging. All of those things that we take for granted as every day flies past. It also puts into perspective how short life is. 30,000 days is all we have to make our stamp on the world.
The reason it isn't five stars is because for me it took too long to get to the interesting bits. We spent a great deal of time 'faffing' and yes, that is a technical term. Also, the alien went from 'I must kill these people' to 'I want to be part of this family' a little too quickly for me. I feel like there needed to be more internal conflict. And finally, as great as this book is at highlighting the wonderfulness of humans, by the end it did feel a little preachy. Although I will take some things from this novel, such as the greatness of peanut butter sandwiches and white wine. 
At the end Haig said he was working on a script for a film which I think will be really interesting.

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, and their capacity for murder and war, and he 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, and 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 to question the mission that brought him here. Praised by The New York Times as a "novelist of great seriousness and talent," 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.

Oana Munteanu

I just love how the author describe, in a humor and realistic, the beauties and flaws of the humans. The ending of the story gave me goosebumps.  

Fraser Simons

Like all of Haig’s works, it’s an interesting premise with a conceit that slowly turns into a wildly prescriptive and contrived manner of regurgitating self-help aphorisms. There is literally a section near the end that is just a list of these. 

Far too artificial and sickly sweet and prescriptive for my tastes. I’m completely done with Haig after this. Writing for a different person than me.

This was a wonderful book to read, it was light, easy and surprisingly funny. 

The story is of an alien who inhabits earth and is written in such a way that you can't help but smile or laugh at the unfolding events the alien[human] Andrew Martin takes us on. 

Matt Haig was able to shed light on what it means to be human, the good and the bad, in a way that doesn't leave you in despair but certainly does open your mind. 
We all know what it means to be human; so reading about an alien discovering what it means to be just that is somewhat heart-warming, and enlightening.

Barbara Williford

Andrew Martin’s body is inhabited by an alien from another world. This alien has an interesting perspective of humans and is here to destroy important mathematical findings that could advance the human race way before they are ready to handle this intelligence. While living as Martin, his perspective and life is forever changed. Humorous and profound.

Cindy Lieberman

# 37. Don’t always try to be cool. The whole universe is cool. It’s the warm bits that matter. 

Humans by Matt Haig is a warm and funny novel about an alien sent to Earth to prevent our species from solving a great mathematical puzzle that would lead to interstellar flight etc. In other words, his assignment is to make sure we stay put in our quiet and sleepy corner of the galaxy. 

The alien has the usual (humorous) troubles 
understanding things like clothes and learning our language from an issue of Cosmopolitan. It’s not a unique story, but it is engaging and well done. 

I was going to give it a solid 4 except for this item in a list of things he has learned on Earth:

# 86. To like something is to insult it. Love it or hate it. Be passionate! As civilization advances so does indifference. It is a disease. Immunize yourself with art and love.

Raquel Silva

I had to read this book for one of my classes in college and I’m so glad for that, because, otherwise, I would’ve never picked it up, seeing as sci-fi is not really my cup of tea when it comes to books, and that’s what I thought the book was about before I read it. However, this book is anything but sci-fi, even if the narrator is a literal alien.
This amazing book made me see humans and humanity in a whole other perspective, as if I was really one of the aliens the narrator was writing for, getting to know the Earth and its inhabitants for the very first time.
This book talks about what it means to be human, and that includes feeling pain, disappointment, sadness, guilt. Not only happiness, comfort and love.
The narrator’s ideals made a 180° turn as he got to know and grow used to humans. He forgot how they were seen as dangerous, primitive, greedy beings that only cared about war, and started to see them rather as a spontaneous, unique, caring race united by love, just trying to make the little time they have worth it and looking for ways to race against time.
It is funny to see how a non-human being could so well start to understand and explain human emotions, ending up choosing them (all of them) over its easy, immortal and void of feelings life in its original planet.
Besides that, all characters are very lovable, perhaps even paradigmatic, and I found myself falling in love with them as well. Gulliver, especially, holds a soft place in my heart, as he represents the pinnacle of teen angst (that I so dearly understand), and all I wanna do is hold him and protect him from all the evil in the world.

Overall, I think it’s a very light, but also deep and meaningful read about what it means to be human, even though it has some less striking scenes and can be very frustrating at times. The way it’s written is also so good, easy and familiar, it was one of the things getting me so easily hooked to the story! I highly recommend this book to everyone, I’m sure it will leave an impression.

Georgia Carr

Dark matter is needed to hold galaxies together. Your mind is a galaxy. More dark than light. But the light makes it worthwhile. Which is to say: don’t kill yourself. Even when the darkness is total. Always know that life is not still. Time is space. You are moving through that galaxy. Wait for the stars. 

Oh man. Matt Haig is a wonder. 

I just spent a good fifteen minutes or more typing up my favourite quotes from this book because 1) there are so many good ones and I got this book from a library so I can't attack it with a highlighter and 2) I want to keep them with me at all times because they're so uplifting and wonderous. This book is an instant favourite and I love that feeling. It's clever, it's funny, it's well written, but most of all, it's heartwarming and inspiring and beautiful. I want to tell everyone to read it. I don't even know. I just want to read it again and again and live in this world forever. So so SOOOO good it hurts.

The Humans A Novel

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