#Review: This Is How We Are Human by Louise Beech @LouiseWriter @OrendaBooks #newrelease #ThisIsHowWeAreHuman

I’m delighted today to be sharing my review of Louise Beech’s This Is How We Are Human, published by Orenda Books on 10th April. For now, it’s only available as an e-book – and you can save a little on the Amazon price by purchasing via Orenda’s new website. The paperback will follow on 10th June, available for pre-order in all the usual places, but with a £2 saving if you buy via the website. A massive thank you to Karen Sullivan, who knows how much I love Louise’s books, for sending me an advance e-copy.

Ah, Louise Beech… what can I say about her wonderful writing that I haven’t said so many times before? I adored her first, How To Be Brave (you’ll find my review here), perhaps still my personal favourite (until now…) by the merest whisker. Then came The Mountain In My Shoe (review here), Maria in the Moon (review here), The Lion Tamer Who Lost (review here), Call Me Star Girl (review here), and I Am Dust (review here) – all the most wonderful reads, and every one featuring in my annual Books of the Year lists. I’ve felt real excitement about every new release, never knowing quite what to expect – other than knowing that the writing will be stunning.

When the mother of an autistic young man hires a call girl to make him happy, three lives collide in unexpected and moving ways … changing everything. A devastatingly beautiful, rich and thought-provoking novel that will warm and break your heart…

 

Sebastian James Murphy is twenty years, six months and two days old. He loves swimming, fried eggs and Billy Ocean. Sebastian is autistic. And lonely.

 

Veronica wants her son Sebastian to be happy … she wants the world to accept him for who he is. She is also thinking about paying a professional to give him what he desperately wants.

 

Violetta is a high-class escort, who steps out into the night thinking only of money. Of her nursing degree. Paying for her dad’s care. Getting through the dark.

 

When these three lives collide – intertwine in unexpected ways – everything changes. For everyone.

 

A topical and moving drama about a mother’s love for her son, about getting it wrong when we think we know what’s best, about the lengths we go to care for family… to survive…

 

This Is How We Are Human is a searching, rich and thought-provoking novel with an emotional core that will warm and break your heart.

I read this wonderful book over a week ago, loved it beyond reason, but every time I’ve sat at my keyboard to produce a review the words have failed to flow. It was a compelling and beautiful read, extremely moving, sometimes very funny, extraordinarily thought provoking, and entirely unlike anything I’ve ever read before – and I adored every single moment.

The story centres on three main characters, who we first meet through an appointment at a sexual health clinic. Veronica, mother to Sebastian, is at her wits’ end about how to handle her son’s obsession with sex – there’s nothing prurient or threatening about it, he’s just 20 years 6 months and 2 days old, and it’s all he can think about. Although that’s not entirely true – he’s almost equally obsessed with the songs of Billy Ocean, the perfect fried eggs, his swimming goggles (that nicely blur the edges) and organising his CDs in alphabetical order. Sebastian has autism, and wants a relationship so very badly – he also has absolutely no filter, and is entirely adorable from that very first encounter. In desperation, Veronica decides to turn to a professional sex worker – and that brings Violetta into their lives, although we’ve already met her in a rather different guise.

I really don’t want to tell the story, but essentially the book is the story of what happens next, while following the lives and journeys of all three characters. The power of the book to make you feel – and feel so very deeply – for them all is exceptional. While you might not agree with Veronica’s decision, or the way she sets about putting it into action, you really can’t help but identify with her and the deep love and desperation that drives her. You will fall in love with Sebastian, as anyone would if they only allowed him to get close enough. I had little understanding of autism and its many challenges when I approached this book, and it entirely altered my perceptions – not by preaching or labouring the point, but simply by presenting a character with depth and complexity who touched me at a deep emotional level. And Violetta’s journey was equally compelling – with no punches pulled on the dangers of her profession, we discover that she’s run out of choices too, and is also motivated by love.

I read this book from cover to cover in almost one sitting, and it hasn’t left my thoughts ever since. It’s so much more than a simple story, and the feelings it evokes are far greater than sympathy – the author exposes her characters in multiple dimensions, makes them so very human, laying their complex lives on the page in the way she does so very well. It makes you question how far it’s acceptable to go in the name of love, but also to examine your own prejudices and misconceptions. And I might not have mentioned the perfection of the writing – despite its themes, there’s a perfect balance between the moments of trauma and the well-judged humour that runs through the story, just before that next small moment that pierces you to the heart and moves you to tears.

This is an exceptional book, full of hope and love – and this is a woefully inadequate review. If you only pick up one book this year, this should be the one – stunning and totally unforgettable.

 ‘It had me gripped from the start and changed the way I see the world. Beautiful, bold and compelling – another fearless story from Beech’ Katie Marsh

 

‘What a brave and prejudice busting story this is … brava’ S. E. Lynes

 

‘A convincing, bittersweet tale of misplaced kindness, a myriad types of vulnerability, and unexpected consequences … All the stars and more’ Carol Lovekin

About the author

Louise Beech is an exceptional literary talent, whose debut novel How To Be Brave was a Guardian Readers’ Choice for 2015. The follow-up, The Mountain in My Shoe was shortlisted for Not the Booker Prize. Both of her previous books Maria in the Moon and The Lion Tamer Who Lost were widely reviewed, critically acclaimed and number-one bestsellers on Kindle. The Lion Tamer Who Lost was shortlisted for the RNA Most Popular Romantic Novel Award in 2019. Her short fiction has won the Glass Woman Prize, the Eric Hoffer Award for Prose, and the Aesthetica Creative Works competition, as well as shortlisting for the Bridport Prize twice. Louise lives with her husband on the outskirts of Hull, and loves her job as a Front of House Usher at Hull Truck Theatre, where her first play was performed in 2012.

Follow Louise on Twitter: she also has an excellent website. Details of Louise’s books can be found on her Amazon author  page or via the Orenda Books website.