It is definitely not a sad story, but it will bring tears to your eyes not because it will break your heart, but because it will stitch up the seams it has. When an extraterrestrial visitor arrives on Earth, his first impressions of the human species are less than positive. But he soon grows deeply fond of humans' capacity for forgiveness, for caring, and for hope--despite their finite life years.

An alien comes to earth to destroy evidence of Professor Andrew Martin who has supposedly solved a major mathematical problem. This imperfect, non-human creature changed the lives of the people around him, especially Isobel’s and Gulliver’s. That's the backstory to a book that opens with our alien narrator finding himself in the body of the professor, whom he has just assassinated. Which means they are born, they make some friends, eat a few meals, they get married, or they don’t get married, have a child or two, or not, drink a few thousand glasses of wine, have sexual intercourse a few times, discover a lump somewhere, feel a bit of regret, wonder where all the time went, know they should have done it differently, realise they would have done it the same, and then they die.

When you watch the news and see members of your species in turmoil, do not think there is nothing you can do.

I don’t want to tell you it is a book that features an alien in it, because you might not like books with aliens in it, and I don’t really. I think, like the main character, I tend to have a pessimistic view on everything, and it was so beautiful to watch his pessimism turn into admiration. Love is truth") above the level of the " Desiderata" poster or the sort of wry and twinkly conclusions about what it means to be human that Spock was often subjected to at the end of a Star Trek episode.A beguiling read, filled with warmth and humour, and a vibrant celebration of the power of books to change lives. Having flicked through a copy of Cosmopolitan to pick up the local language, he then makes his way to Cambridge. An unnamed alien is therefore sent to Earth on a mission to ensure humankind remains unaware that this secret has been solved. I just love how in the beginning, he questioned everything and thought humans were the dumbest species to ever exist, and then he grew so fond of humans - it was such a beautiful thing to see him fall in love with humanity.

Humans, as a rule, don't like mad people unless they are good at painting, and only then once they are dead. His mission is to kill anyone that might know about the mathematical equation but things don't go as planned. For example, while watching the news on TV, he discovered “The news was prioritized in a way I could not understand. This isn’t a book about maths, aliens or anything alike, but instead about mental health (and there’s a wonderful thriller-like-feel to it). However, it's a mark of how funny and clever the rest of his novel is that Haig just about gets away with the love-is-truth guff.You will be convinced the author himself is from another world, sent here to give us some wisdom, but perhaps also fearful if we can handle it.

The narrator decides to give some advice to fellow humans and comes up with some cliched (yet wise) gems.Matt Haig is not afraid of a sweeping generalisation any more than he is afraid of peculiar specifics… But this bravado is what makes the book work. After an 'incident' one wet Friday night where he is found walking naked through the streets of Cambridge, Professor Andrew Martin is not feeling quite himself. The alien main character only seemed to be naive or uninformed at the convenience of the author to make some glib observation, not to drive the plot and not in a consistent manner with the premise. Isobel cared so much that she was able to sacrifice the other aspects of her career just so she could take care of her family while Andrew was out working.