Human after all

Week 39: The Humans – Matt Haig
Recommended by: Gareth Watkins

Moving on in fairly rapid succession from The Martian to The Humans it feels like I've come a little closer to home, even if the protagonist in the former is a human and that of the latter is a martian. Ok, he's actually a Vonnadorian but he's definitely still an alien. He has been sent to Earth to kill and replace a Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge University who has just discovered the answer to life, the universe and everything.

This is perceived as a threat from halfway across the universe as those pesky humans are simply not smart or advanced enough to be able to handle such a complex and important piece of information. As 'Andrew' adapts to his new life, we are presented with an outsider's view of humans, their follies, their foibles and their fantastic bits. Inevitably he starts to be humanised and discovers that life on Earth and the relationships of even a single person are rather complicated. And just in case you were wondering, the mysterious answer has something to do with primes, so it's definitely not 42.

So if all of this sounds a bit like a Nick Hornby or David Nichols story as written by Douglas Adams, you'd be pretty close to the money. Things for Andrew don't always go to plan and we're left with him getting into and out of a series of farcical situations throughout the first part of the novel. This is interspersed with a humorous look at some of the daft things we do without thinking that they might be a bit silly, simply because we have always done them. Observations on the usual suspects – think religion, love, the news – are all here but fortunately Haig is genuinely funny so is able to pull it off. A favourite being when our hero encounters a student called Zoe: "I like violent men. I don't know why. It's kind of a self-harm thing. I go to Peterborough a lot. Rich pickings."

During the second half of the novel, Andrew finds out more about what being a human means and starts to form close relationships with 'his' wife and son. Indeed, he actually seems to be a better husband and father than the man he replaced and he starts to go rogue and ignore his mission. Needless to say there are a few twists and turns in order for more comedy, as well as some emotional drama. I don't know if anyone has snapped up the film rights (I'd guess so, pretty much everything seems to be optioned these days) but it would easily translate to the big screen. Indeed, it has a screenplay-like quality to it and I can certainly imagine something that blends elements of Third Rock from the Sun, Red Dwarf and a rom-com.

I'm not completely sure the style of humour and sentiment would be to everyone's taste, though they are to min,e and Haig has sufficient skill to pull off both. There's also some big 'love is all' kind of messages at the end, delivered as advice for his son. This veers a little towards mawkishness but generally works because at heart the book is good-natured and funny. And any book which closes by quoting Talking Heads' beautiful This Must be the Place definitely gets a thumbs up from me.