The Humans

Written By Matt Haig

Novel Summary

The story begins with an alien walking around naked. He is in the body of college math professor Andrew Martin. The alien is on Earth with the mission to erase all evidence of a solved equation that is too advanced for humans to be trusted with. To complete his mission he has to murder his colleague and is instructed to kill his “wife” and “son” next. The alien starts developing love for them though and turns more human. When his superiors realize he is not fit to take them out, they send a new alien to do it. He then kills his imposter and reveals to “his” wife that he is an alien, and she kicks him out. Even though he is not her real husband she still loves him. You can interpret from the ending that he goes back to their home and she embraces his return.

Novel Connection

In Matt Haig's “The Humans” the alien impersonating Andrew Martin may lack a basic understanding of human life but he is very persistent. “Andrew” is sent to Earth to get rid of all evidence of a math problem Andrew Martin, a math professor, solved including murdering his family. “Martin” is persistent when communicating to his bosses that “there is no reason to destroy them”(116). If “Martin” did not persist then “his” son and wife would be dead. For “Martin'' to impersonate Martin he had to be extremely persistent when maintaining his identity. “Martin” goes along with everything that people around him expect of him. He even sleeps with his student which “reminded him of the fundamental strangeness of the human body. With [“his” wife], [he] never felt like [he] was sleeping with an alien, but with [his student] the level of exoticism bordered on terror”. “Andrew” did not want to sleep with his student because he was in love with “his” wife. He slept with her because he felt like he had to maintain his secret identity, and if he did not she may figure out something is wrong. He did not enjoy sleeping with her but he had to maintain his secret identity even when faced with obstacles.