The way in which Haig handles the endlessly complicated issue of human nature and emotion is effortless. We follow the narrator as he goes from being a detached, hateful outsider to a complex, well-rounded character that is essentially no different from any other human. What I found particularly interesting was the third person outlook on humanity; how we can be capable of both intense cruelty and stunning beauty all at the same time. The narrator may have a flat, one-sided view of humanity, but once the layers of prejudice start to peel away, that is where things start to get interesting. The prose is simple yet stunningly effective, and is easy to read but hard to understand, which was one of my favourite things about the book. Throughout the novel, our narrator encounters many different definitions of love. Which of these definitions spoke to you the most? Why? Why is love such a difficult, particularly human, puzzle? It all seems a long way from the dark moment in Ibiza in 1999. Is he in that fabled “good place”? “I will for ever have to be mindful of my mental health,” he says. “I can’t take my eye off the ball. But I’m definitely in a very grateful place. I never say I’m a happy person, because that’s almost like saying you’re a sad person. It fixes you as that thing and imposes certain expectations. I try to be open to everything.

You shouldn’t have been born. Your existence is as close to impossible as can be. To dismiss the impossible is to dismiss yourself.” 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.”When you watch the news and see members of your species in turmoil, do not think there is nothing you can do. But know it is not done by watching news. The first part of the book has several comic moments, the alien arrives knowing nothing of human life and finds himself naked and without language on a motorway. Matt Haig has held a magnifying glass to humans here and through the eyes of the alien Andrew we see our often irrational absurdity. Matt Haig is a supreme talent and a writer to cherish, and The Humans is undoubtedly his magnum opus

Except for the fact that people just talked about his experience in sly references not head on. Even his family didn't deal with it well. I thought what was more impressive was the kid's reaction to the father's issue. His brush with suicide was moving - I felt his dispair with life. Haig, Matt (29 November 2015). "School's out". The Sunday Times. ISSN 0140-0460 . Retrieved 9 April 2022. He is determined to stand up to “mental health snobbery … When you’re feeling a bit rough and ropey, and your mind is distracted, you can’t absorb the most highbrow text. You’re not there reading Freud and Jung and Lacan. A pop song can save your life. An episode of Friends can change your life. But when it’s in the world of books, it becomes this snobfest. I’m resistant to that. I also like confusing people, so I’ll do my big, corny, sentimental, puppy-dog line and then I’ll write a chapter about Aristotle.” I never say I’m a happy person ... It imposes certain expectationsA 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 Matt Haig is a supreme talent and a writer to cherish, and The Humans is undoubtedly his magnum opus" ( Guardian) On the note of the plot point where the aliens kill a mathematician to slow down advancement I found it chilling to see the IRL headline from a week or so ago that a nuclear scientist was killed in Iran (presumably to slow down their program). Fact meets fiction, etc.

Kidd, James (29 November 2015). "Matt Haig interview: The writer hopes his new book will help him banish the ghosts of Christmas past". The Independent. Archived from the original on 12 May 2022 . Retrieved 2 October 2016.

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Another film/book I was reminded of was About a Boy where a somewhat oblivious father figure is trying his best to help a young boy and his mother where there are mental health issues involved (and they are British). Not a direct correspondence, but got some of that vibe. In 2020, Matt Haig released his novel The Midnight Library about a young woman named Nora Seed who is unhappy with her choices in life. During the night she tries to kill herself but ends up in a library managed by her school librarian, Mrs. Elm. The library is between life and death with millions of books filled with stories of her life had she made some decisions differently. In this library, she then tries to find the life in which she's the most content. [11] It was shortlisted for the 2021 British Book Awards "Fiction book of the year". [12] The Midnight Library was adapted for radio and broadcast in ten episodes on BBC Radio 4 in December 2020. [13] I enjoyed this story by Matt Haig so much more than his book The Midnight Library (see my review at https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...) that I had a hard time putting it down. His concept of looking at life from the eyes of a nonhuman is extremely well-written. Mental health is dealt with thoughtfully. It is philosophical without being "in-your-face preachy". Pulley, Natasha (27 August 2020). "The Midnight Library by Matt Haig review – a celebration of life's possibilities". The Guardian . Retrieved 12 May 2021. His fears were unfounded. Canongate rescued him. He realised the key was to write for himself and not worry about critical expectations or the division between literary and commercial fiction. The Humans gave him confidence and confirmed his new publisher’s faith in him; Reasons to Stay Alive, which was derived from a blog he wrote in 2014, established him firmly in the public mind as a teller of stories and an open, uninhibited, ego-free chaperone through the maelstrom of life.