It's hardest to belong when you're closest to home...One wet Friday evening, Professor Andrew Martin of Cambridge University solves the world's greatest mathematical riddle. Then he disappears. When he is found walking naked along the motorway, Professor Martin seems different. Besides the lack of clothes, he now finds normal life pointless. His loving wife and teenage son seem repulsive to him. In fact, he hates everyone on the planet. Everyone, that is, except Newton. And he's a dog. Can a bit of Debussy and Emily Dickinson keep him from murder? Can the species which invented cheap white wine and peanut butter sandwiches be all that bad? And what is the warm feeling he gets when he looks into his wife's eyes?
Industry Reviews
The Humans is a laugh-and-cry book. Troubling, thrilling, puzzling, believable and impossible. Matt Haig uses words like a tin-opener. We are the tin -- JEANETTE WINTERSON A brilliant exploration of what it is to love, and to be human, The Humans is both heartwarming and hilarious, weird, and utterly wonderful. One of the best books I've read in a very long time -- S J WATSON Utterly wonderful -- MARK BILLINGHAM The Humans is tremendous; a kind of Curious Incident meets The Man Who Fell to Earth.
It's funny, touching and written in a highly appealing voice -- JOANNE HARRIS Matt Haig's hilarious novel puts our species on the spot * * Guardian * * A wonderfully funny, gripping and inventive novel. Like Kurt Vonnegut and Audrey Niffenegger, Haig uses the tropes of science fiction to explore and satirise concepts of free will, love, marriage, logic, immortality and mercy with elegance and poignancy * * The Times * * Extraordinary * * The Independent * * Excellent . . . very human and touching indeed -- PATRICK NESS Astute, drolly hilarious and occasionally beautiful, full of poignant and painful insight into what it is to be human -- Jay Richardson * * The List * * 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 * * Booklist * * This is a book I can see myself returning to again and again. I love it! * * Curiosity Killed The Bookworm * * The Humans is a romantic look at people, at what builds us and what we have achieved. This can be seen in the wistful glances of poetry and music. If you took out all of the narrative aspects, The Humans could be seen as a collection of essays from a man pondering his own existence. Thank you Matt, for this map you have drawn for me and many others * * Utter Biblio * * My praise for this book is never-ending - I genuinely haven't loved a book as much as I love this one, in a very long time - and I'm sure that it will stay with me for a very long time to come. This is a book that I think everyone - regardless of your preferred genres - should pick up and read. It will have you laughing, give you goosebumps, make you gasp, bring a tear to your eye, and warm you from the inside out. This is, in my opinion, a perfect masterpiece * * Pen to Paper * * THE HUMANS is the best thing I've read this year by a mile. It's going straight on my list of books I wish I'd written -- GAVIN EXTENCE author of The Universe versus Alex Woods This is a tender, funny novel about the often irrational ways humans behave, written in accessible prose, and invites comparison with Mark Haddon and Patrick Ness * * The Independent on Sunday * * A novel with an enormous heart, infused with a sense of gratitude for everything that makes us who we are -- Charlotte Heathcote * * Daily Express * * Haig's unexpectedly raw tale of love, belonging, and peanut butter... It's funny, clever and quite, quite lovely -- Sam Baker * * Sunday Times * * It's hard to describe just how good The Humans is. It's a book that has something for everybody. After all, it's about all of us. Funny and life affirming, it's one of those rarest of books; a feel good read that will stay with you long after reading. Read it, share it, live it * * Robin's Books * * Witty and insightful and brilliantly written in a way that makes it easy to love * * Liz Loves Books * * The Humans is thoughtful, hopeful and honest and I loved every page * * So Little Time * * Full of dark humour and dry one-liners, and (former broadsheet journalist) Haig's unfussy style makes it an easy, enjoyable read * * The Forester * * A delightful, refreshing, humorous book that will remind you to treasure the joy in life * * What Hannah Read * * Great idea, great plot and superb comedy, especially from the alien's puzzled analyses of primitive human ways * * Daily Mail * *
