The Humans

By Matt Haig

This book was a good contrast to Cockroach. It is the story of an alien who comes to earth because a mathematician has solved a mathematical proof that has potential to change the earth. He murders the husband and takes over in his body or at least a replica of his body. He has been sent to earth to destroy any evidence of the discovery of the proof plus killl thd man's wife and son.

The alien comes from a world where there are no families, no relationships, no fear.  Everything is done based on rational thought.  They have great techological knowledge - can heal illness, travel vast distances through space.

However, as he is new to human habits he doesn't  know that he needs to be wearing clothes.  When he is found wandering around nude he is taken to a psych ward.  The assumption is that he has had a mental breakdown from overwork.

He meets the mathematician's wife and son, both of whom are not fond of him.  He finds out that they considered the mathematician totally self-absorbed and devoted only to his career.  He tries to talk to them to find out what he did wrong.  The wife is quite forthcoming, the son not so much.

He finds out that the mathematician had confided the news to one of his colleagues so the alien visits the person and kills him (it appears to be a heart attack).  However, despite urgings from his leaders he finds he cannot bring himself to kill the wife or the son.  In fact, he brings the son back to life, using his healing powers, when the boy commits suicide.

He is getting a lot of grief from his superiors and finally tells them to take away his powers and let him remain as a human. He does this without really thinking of the full consequences of this decision. It is painful being human but he is able to start to mend the rifts in ths family.  However, when he confides to the wife that he has had sex with one of his students (not realizing that it is wrong to do this) the wife kicks him out.

He is going to leave but disovers another alien has arrived to carry out the job he was supposed to do and he hurries back to the house to protect "his" family.  When the son arrives home he sees that there are two men that look like his father in the house.  The second alien tries to kill him but the first alien gets the son to kill the second alien.  Before the alien dies he makes the second alien tell the bosses that he has completed his mission -- so that the family will not longer be hunted. They bury the rapidly deteriorating remains of the alien (he is reverting to his alien form) in the backyard.  He tells the son and wife the truth about being an alien and his mission and how he gave up everything for them.  The wife cannot deal with his deceit and tells him to leave.

He finds a job in California but finds he misses the wife and boy. A year later he travels back to Cambridge to deliver a lecture.  He meets the son and the family dog whom he really likes.  Theson tells him that the wife misses him and he should come see her.

The message of the story sems to be that love is the only thing that saves us from the pain of being human.  But that love can make the pain worth it.  This was a funny, tender story.   Obviously it had a few holes, for e.g. the son and wife didn't seem to surprised at his apparent change of personality... I guess they accepted it as part of the outcome of the breakdown  It was a good light read, and good for some laughs..