Author: Matt Haig
Genres: Novel, Science fiction, Domestic Fiction
Published: 2013
Number of pages: 305
I enjoy reading Matt Haig because he always manages to deliver meaningful messages in the simplest, most unburdening way. The Humans is the third novel I’ve read by Haig, and it offers a unique reflection on life, happiness, love, and the paradoxes of human existence — all seen through the eyes of an alien who must learn what it means to be human.
Synopsis
Professor Andrew Martin had proved the Riemann Hypothesis. For aliens from more intellectually advanced species, proving the hypothesis means getting close to unlocking immense power — intellectual, technological, and possibly destructive. That’s why they kill the real Andrew Martin, a professor of mathematics at Cambridge University, and send “an agent” inhabited in the professor’s body, who must eliminate everyone who knows anything about the proven hypothesis.
When the agent arrives on Earth, he is shaken, without clothes, and wanders the city trying to find the real Andrew’s university campus. His mission is to erase all proven work and to get rid of his son, Gulliver, his wife, Isobel, and anyone who already knew about it.
Soon, he is taken to a hospital after realizing that humans value clothes more than what they represent. Just like with clothes, humans carry invisible layers of passion, emotion, and complexity that he never expected. Here on Earth, it is not like in his galaxy — people have spiritual values and emotions, and the cold, logic-driven society he comes from is far more different from Earth’s people than he ever imagined. Slowly, he begins to understand what it means to be human.
Full Plot
Isobel takes Andrew home and takes care of him because the doctors believe he is experiencing temporary amnesia due to overwork and stress, and that it’s best for him to stay at home and recover.
At first, Andrew is cold and distant, as he remains in contact with his community, who constantly remind him of his mission. He even tracks down his colleague, Rassell, and kills him in his own house using his superpowers. But this incident — Rassell’s death, his wife’s mourning, and her emotional breakdown — shakes him. He begins to understand the emotional bonds people have with each other. They care for one another, and through caring, relationships gain value, and individuals become important to each other.
He sees how deeply Isobel cares for him and how much she worries about Gulliver. As he begins to discover Isobel — reading her books and the novels she used to hide from him — he even starts to interpret the expressions on people’s faces.
When he realizes that Gulliver is struggling at school, he begins to understand how fragile people’s inner worlds can be — so fragile that Gulliver had even attempted to take his own life.
Andrew uses his superpowers to save Gulliver after he takes a large number of pills and jumps from the roof. Gulliver feels lost and empty because everyone expects him to be like his father — brilliant, self-sufficient, and happy because of their wealth. But all Gulliver wants is to be accepted for who he truly is. He loves music, a girl in his class, and he’s not a mathematician or historian like his parents. He’s more artistic and emotional, and the fact that his own parents never understood him left him more isolated than ever.
Andrew becomes so integrated into the life of the real Andrew Martin that he no longer wants to kill Isobel and Gulliver. He falls in love with Isobel and spends nights with her.
However, when he learns about the real Andrew’s affair with a student, he feels compelled to meet the girl too. They go on a date, which ends in physical intimacy.
He doesn’t realize that this act is considered disloyalty. When he confesses to Isobel, her heart breaks, and Martin is forced to leave the house.
Andrew then confesses to a friend about his real identity and intentions. This is when the real drama begins. His alien society sends another agent — also as Professor Andrew Martin — to complete the initial mission.
They succeed in killing Andrew’s friend, Ari, and come for Isobel and Gulliver. Andrew rushes to protect his family, and with Gulliver’s help, he manages to save them.
Now that they are safe, he chooses to leave and start a new life alone.
After a few years, still missing his life as Isobel’s husband and Gulliver’s father, he returns to Cambridge. In a park, he runs into Gulliver. Gulliver tells him that Isobel is still waiting for him, and that he was different from his real father. He says, “You know where our house is,” and leaves with the old dog, Newton.
The book ends on an optimistic note, with the idea that Andrew might return to Isobel once again.
Review
Now that I’ve shared the summary of The Humans, I realize I liked it even more. While I was reading it, I had the feeling that the author had gone through some kind of personal crisis, and then learned how to appreciate life. I’ve overcome depression myself, and what he described in the book felt so familiar to me.
The emotional apathy, Gulliver’s collapsing world, Andrew’s numb condition — and then the way the characters slowly begin to discover each other’s inner worlds — it all resonated deeply. I know what it’s like to overcome depression and to feel everything again, but this time in different colors.
At the end of the book, in the author’s note, Matt Haig shares that he himself went through depression and panic attacks, and that he overcame it with the help of books, reading, and writing.
All the author really wants is for us to feel each other, to understand that we all share the same emotions. We are important to one another, and we grow through the help of each other.
It’s always easy to read Matt Haig, and I promise you — his books will always leave you with positive emotions.
Favorite quotes from the Human by Matt Haig
Here are a few of my favorite quotes that I took out from the book.
- Shame is a shackle. Free yourself.
- Don’t worry about your abilities. You have the ability to love. That is enough.
- Be nice to other people. At the universal level, they are you.
- Technology won’t save humankind. Humans will.
- Be curious. Question everything. A present fact is just a future fiction.
- History is a branch of mathematics. So is literature. Economics is a branch of religion.
- Sex can damage love but love can’t damage sex.
- The news should start with mathematics, then poetry, and move down from there.
- You shouldn’t have been born. Your existence is as close to impossible as can be. To dismiss the impossible is to dismiss yourself.
- Don’t worry about being angry. Worry when being angry becomes impossible. Because then you have been consumed.
- Dogs are geniuses of loyalty. And that is a good kind of genius to have.
- No one is ever completely right about anything. Anywhere.
- Everyone is a comedy. If people are laughing at you they just don’t quite understand the joke that is themselves.
- At some point, bad things are going to happen. Have someone to hold on to.
Books similar to the Humans by Matt Haig
If you loved The Humans by Matt Haig — with its blend of emotional depth, philosophical reflection, humor, and sci-fi — here are some books you might really enjoy:
- The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
- How to stop time by Matt Haid
- A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman
- Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
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