This is How We Are Human by Louise Beech

Oh, my heart! I know going in that this book was going to be emotional but I had no idea how much it would move me. Welcome to my blog tour review of This is How We Are Human by Louise Beech. Huge thanks to Anne Cater at Random Things Tours for inviting me and to the publisher for my review copy. I will also be buying my own paperback copy for the book shelf - definitely one to keep!

The Blurb

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, and 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, and intertwine in unexpected ways, everything changes. For everyone.

Both heartbreaking and heartwarming, This is How We Are Human is a powerful, moving and thoughtful 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 and to survive.

This is How We Are Human was published by Orenda Books as an eBook on 10th April 2021 and in paperback and audio on 10th June 2021.

My Review

This is the third of Louise's books I've read after Call Me Star Girl and I Am Dust and for me it's easily the best of the three, and the other two were brilliant! Perhaps this was always going to be the one that touched me the most as I have experience of autism spectrum disorder - to a lesser degree than Sebastian's - within the family and know a little of what it's like to fight for a child/young person.

I finished This is How We Are Human and bawled my eyes out. Proper ugly crying. There were happy tears and sad tears and a whole lot more. And I didn't want to say goodbye to these real, flawed (although not Sebastian) and beautiful characters. 

Sebastian is a bright, intelligent, handsome and honest young man who likes to do things his own way. He has autism and his social skills are lacking, he speaks in a forthright manner, sometimes inappropriately, he struggles to understand the feelings of others and he doesn't have any friends. He is twenty years old and wants to have sex. Like really wants to have sex. Mum Veronica doesn't want him to miss out on anything and, whilst she is uncomfortable doing so, she seeks out escort Violetta in the hope that she can help her son. 

I loved this book - it gave me all the feels. It's written so carefully, so tenderly and we never pity Sebastian and nor should we. There were certainly moments where I wanted to reach in and hug him - which he wouldn't have allowed - but I saw him only in a positive light. I was cheering him on throughout the book. I loved the wee insights we got into how he thinks - 

'Mum has black lines under her eyes as deep as those ridges on a car tyre. She nods and looks at me like I'm the sad ending to one of those kissy-kissy films she watches on a Saturday night while eating Maltesers.'

'She smells so nice. Like she's made of lemon drizzle cake.'

Both of those made me cry. But I loved entering his ordered world and learning more about it. 

In Veronica we see a mother who loves her son more than anything in the world. She wants him to experience a 'normal' life but maybe has her reservations that he will be able to. She also wants to protect Sebastian from the cruelty of people who ridicule those they perceive to be different. And she is willing to do anything to make her son happy. 

I loved Violetta. Escorting is a means to an end for her and she has to endure some really awful things for it. She is deeply troubled and sad and that comes off the page. I really felt her pain and loved her letters to the night. 

All three main characters are wonderfully written. We feel their pain, their confusion, their sadness and their joy. I laughed and cried throughout. The storyline is brilliantly handled. It could so easily have been titillating, sordid but it is neither of these things. It's tender and beautiful, and we see Sebastian testing himself, becoming more independent. 

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a much misunderstood condition which affects each individual differently. I love to see stories featuring an autistic character in a positive way - I feel they can only be helpful for people's awareness and understanding. And I very much feel that about This is How We Are Human. I know Louise consulted with a young friend with autism and his family and I think that shows in the writing. 

I must just mention the chapter headings because, taken out of context, some of them are really funny. 

'Veronica isn't happy with the skirting boards.'

'Sebastian wonders how he will know it's love and not indigestion.' Possibly a question for us all! 

'Isabelle's face is more readable than Jim Carrey's.'

This is How We Are Human is a book about desperation, bad choices, love and letting go. I defy anyone not to be moved by this book. It will make you laugh and make you cry. It will break your heart then make it sing. It will educate you. And I suspect it will stay with you for a long time. My favourite book of the year so far. Just beautiful. 

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 2019 novel Call Me Star Girl won Best magazine Book of the Year, and was followed by I Am Dust. 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.