The Humans by Matt Haig
Fiction

The unnamed narrator is an otherworld alien who has taken human form in order to prevent humanity’s progress toward self-destruction. He has taken the place of a brilliant mathematician whose recent breakthrough has the potential to destroy the universe, and the narrator must remove all traces of this mathematical discovery, including any people who have knowledge of it. The narrator is initially disgusted by all things human, but as he lives among them as a man with a family and friends, he begins to discover the “weird and often frightening beauty of being human.” As a 43-year-old newborn on planet Earth, there is much that puzzles and intrigues him: clothing, dogs, coffee, peanut butter, music, dead poets (especially Emily Dickenson), and love. When he forges bonds with the friends and family of the man he has replaced, he begins to have second thoughts about his mission. An amusing and thought-provoking look at the best and worst of humanity, with an emphasis on the best.