Just like humans, the book has its flaws: such as Andrew’s conversations with his loved ones that are filled with awkward exposition, or how the alien incarnation of Andrew is so different to the original that you would expect his family to ask more questions. Poignantly, Haig wrote The Humans in the wake of his own battle with depression. Having pitied us for our finite lifespans, he realises that our sense of our own mortality is precisely what gives our lives meaning and momentum. Once he starts to experience emotions, it gradually dawns on him that without suffering sadness or anxiety, it is impossible to appreciate happiness.
Matt Haig delivers plenty of comic set pieces that makes The Humans a highly entertaining read, but our nameless alien discovers that these humans are not quite the warmongering, money-grabbing imbeciles that he was led to expect.Īs he finds himself slowly falling for “his” wife Isobel and developing a gut-wrenching love for “his” depressed teenage son Gulliver, he develops a poignant understanding of just what makes us human. He tries to run away from rain and finds people so physically repugnant with their “inside out” faces that, although his wife is clearly beautiful by human standards, he almost gags every time he looks at her.Ībove all, he pities a race so primitive that they have not even discovered the key to eternal life.
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