‘This Is How We Are Human’ by Louise Beech | @LouiseWriter @OrendaBooks @RandomTTours | #blogtour #extract #recommended

Absolutely delighted to welcome you all to my stop on the blog tour for This Is How We Are Human by Louise Beech. I reviewed this book a while back for ebook publication and you can read my thoughts here. Today, I’m sharing an extract with you all but first, here is what this beautiful novel is all about.

Author : Louis Beech
Title : This Is How We Are Human
Pages : 320
Publisher : Orenda Books
Publication date : June 10, 2021

| ABOUT THE BOOK |

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.

| EXTRACT |

Veronica deflates. 

She realises she is crying; the woman at the next table looks uncomfortable. Sebastian isn’t a monster, but she can see why Annabelle is protective of her fifteen-year-old daughter. This reads, however, like Sebastian has been set up. Siobhan has clearly been teasing him. Showing him inappropriate videos like those boys did, sending him into a testosterone-fuelled frenzy. At nearly twenty, the girl should know better; a bad apple never falls far from the tree. Thinking of Annabelle calling Sebastian a monster when her daughter is the bully has Veronica scrunching the letter up in her fist. 

After a while she tries to flatten it out again and puts it in her bag. 

Down below, Sebastian floats on his back, fully clothed, pretending to be unconscious while two boys pull him to the edge. Veronica smiles. He remains fake-unconscious as they try to get him out of the pool, and Mr Keyes has to intervene. 

It will be OK, she decides. If I just make sure Sebastian stays away from Siobhan and her sister, it will all be OK. 

How many times has she self-comforted in this way over the years? Told herself it will all be OK if she does this or does that. Told herself that if she just gets over this one hurdle, it might be the last. She has always been all that Sebastian needs. Life was simpler when he was a child, and a good meal and their home, their simple routine, was enough. But he’s older now. An adult. The world beckons. And he needs more. What if he never meets a girl? What if he gets to thirty and he is still alone? Veronica can’t bear it. 

When the lesson finishes, she waits for Sebastian by the drinks machine, blackcurrant Fruit Shoot already purchased to hand over to him. He bounces out of the changing area, goggles still on, takes the drink and downs it in one. 

‘Mr Keyes wants to see you,’ he says, panting from the effort. 

‘Why?’ The way the day has gone so far, Veronica has a sinking feeling. 

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I promise you you are in for a true Beech treat. Go and get yourself a copy right now if you haven’t yet done so.

Bert’s Books | Bookshop UK | Hive UK or support your local indie bookshop!

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