The narrator decides to give some advice to fellow humans and comes up with some cliched (yet wise) gems. A selection: I viewed this book as a short, light-hearted, derivative story (I'd forgotten all about the film Dave until Alison referred to it) but none the worse for that (what isn't derivative nowadays?). While not hysterically amusing it did keep me entertained. The extraterrestrial comes in with a distorted view of humans and through his eyes, we see the absurdity of some mundane things like jobs, news and so on. He also takes us on a crazy trip through our own existence, so we can see with clarity how silly, awful, lovely, ridiculous and wonderful our short lives are. It's a clever look at all of us from a different angle. Let this book help you rethink about life and see its beauty. Give it a moment and you would not regret it!

All visible objects, man, are but as pasteboard masks. But in each event--in the living act, the undoubted deed - there, some unknown but still reasoning thing puts forth the mouldings of its features from behind the unreasoning mask. If man will strike, strike through the mask! Sent to Earth to destroy evidence that the Professor has solved a mathematical problem known as the Riemann hypothesis, the Vonnadorians have concerns this innovation will advance mankind into a new age of space travel and deploy this alien in an act of subterfuge. The alien race’s main concern with human beings is that they are violent and primitive in nature, so feel their advancement must be curtailed at all costs, starting with ending Andrew’s life. In August 2012 my brother died by suicide. In the dark days and weeks immediately after his death I read almost incessantly. I couldn't sleep because when I closed my eyes all I could see was his body (I had to go to the mortuary with my father to formally identify his body.) When I was awake I read so I could bear the raw grief ripping at my heart. I believe that it's thanks to books I survived those days, I'm not sure how I'd have coped without books giving me a respite from my at times overwhelming reality. I really liked the dog and all of the scenes between the alien and the dog. But authors, please stop feeding dogs toxic foods! :p It would have been more funny when the dog ate the “Earth” if it hadn’t been a grape.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. Haig identifies as an atheist. [16] He has said that books are his one true faith, and the library is his church. [18]

I particularly liked the interactions with Newton the dog. 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. although it was written to Gulliver from Andrew, I loved the chapter titled "Advice for a human" (very poignant). You have the power to stop time. You do it by kissing. Or listening to music. Music, by the way, is how you see things you can’t otherwise see. It is the most advanced thing you have. It is a superpower. Keep up with the bass guitar. You are good at it. Join a band.As of 2015 [update], Haig is married to Andrea Semple, and they lived in Brighton, Sussex, with their two children and a dog. [4] [16] The children were homeschooled. [17] But know this. Men are not from Mars. Women are not from Venus. Do not fall for categories. Everyone is everything. Every ingredient inside a star is inside you, and every personality that ever existed competes in the theatre of your mind for the main role. But the book asserts otherwise. It takes the position of the Melville quote. The main character breaks through the façade of time and distance to find “the reasoning thing.” And that was apparently love, family and a sense of belonging. Perhaps that was the author’s wish, to live in such a world. The narrator does know a lot of dry facts about humans and their history; but, though he is a fast learner, he is remarkably ill informed about aspects of their daily lives, and he is quite frightened by being in such an unfamiliar world. For one thing, though he has come across the word “love” in magazines, he has no idea what it is. 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. Scott Fitzgerald. In an interview with The Guardian, Haig revealed the book has been optioned by StudioCanal films, and Benedict Cumberbatch had been "lined up to star" in the film adaptation. [8] Reasons to Stay Alive won the Books Are My Bag Readers' Awards in 2016 and How to Stop Time was nominated in 2017. [9] In August 2018, he wrote lyrics for English singer and songwriter Andy Burrows's music album, the title of which was derived from Haig's book Reasons to Stay Alive. [10]