The Humans

Product Information

You arrived, with baby feet and hands and infinite happiness, and then the happiness slowly evaporated as your feet and hands grew bigger. During the night she tries to kill herself but ends up in a library managed by her school librarian, Mrs.

If I was really being honest and removed Haig's name from the book I would have to say that this is an illuminating and thought provoking read that tries to at least look at the big questions of why we are here, what do we want and how we should live wrapped up in a truly innovative 'the aliens are here' story set around an academic family in a university city/town. The tonal language in the song of a humpback whale displays more complexity than the entire works of Shakespeare.

I found the alien's facination with mathematics to be a bit out there for me - I know music is supposed to be based on math etc but I still enjoy music without the math theorem behind it. We're never quite sure how much the alien projects his own feelings onto Newton, like any human would, or how much he perceives more about the animal then we are able to. That said, I didn't expect the mental health aspects or the suicide attempt by the son and was pleased with their inclusion. The reader is challenged to question how much his or her clothing choices are governed by a desire to express creativity or a need to conform, “to look the part”.

I definitely plan to read more from Haig but this didn't quite hit the mark for me, partially because I prefer to feel like i'm "one" with the narrator and see from their point of view, but since the narrator is a different species entirely, it was hard to truly get lost in the style. But then he starts liking and loving his wife, gets involved in the strained life of his growingup son to help him, and he likes the dog :-) And then he finds out life on earth is not so bad, although 'the humans' could learn a lot. His super-terrestrial powers are more than equal to the task, but what if his increasing assimilation of human character and sympathies neutralises his hitherto dispassionate resolve? In 2017, Haig published How to Stop Time, a novel about a man who appears to be 40 but has, in fact, lived for more than 400 years and has met Shakespeare, Captain Cook and F.The plot is only a facade for looking at humanity from a differing perspective, and despite what many would say in other reviews, it's not unique and it's not a revelation. Later, he concludes that his previous life, controlled by mathematics and free from emotion and sentimentality, was “the dullest life you can imagine”.