Oh dear. Bizarre is not necessarily equivalent to interesting. Here is the novel's premise: a young woman, Mary Green, has broken up with her boyfriend of five years after considerable strain and numerous heated arguments about her failure to commit and her ambivalence about having children. She has bought out her boyfriend's share of the house they had purchased together. She develops a relationship, bordering on romantic, with a fox that enters her yard. Soon, she is attempting to control, "civilize" and protect the animal in the very way she resented her boyfriend doing with her. I cringed when the protagonist began to address the poor creature as "darling" and felt sorry for the animal being trapped in Cocozza's novel. No fox deserved that fate.

This is a too precious--and often quite silly--novel lumbering towards the literary. It ended up being mostly terribly tedious. There is some overlap with Marion Engel's Canadian classic The Bear in which an introverted young woman has a more graphic relationship with a bear. I also thought there were slight nods to D.H. Lawrence's novella, The Fox, and the poems of Ted Hughes. (Having said that, I actually like that work of Lawrence and Hughes's poetry--and if you haven't guessed, I did not like Cocozza's work.) How to be Human may have made a more successful short story than a novel--but possibly only because it would have ended sooner. It lurches along, straining under a weight of sensory details. I cannot tell you how tired I was, by the end of the novel, of reading of the puff of musk that was being endlessly emitted from the fox's rear! I will not read anything further this writer produces.

“The animals of the world exist for their own reasons. They were not made for humans any more than black people were made for white, or women created for men.”--Alice Walker

I found this book to be so strange. I didn't make it past chapter two

A bit too out there for me to really enjoy, reminded me of The Portable Veblen.

Mary is a thirty-four year-old single woman who lives in London. She has ended a significant relationship in the last few months, but is still carrying inside the emotional remnants of that relationship. Does she want him back? Mary is not sure, until a new being enters her life...a red fox that is prowling the urban wilderness where she resides. At first, she thinks the fox, because naturally it is the same one, is trespassing on her garden, but eventually he starts leaving her gifts that may or may not have hidden messages. She becomes rather fond of him, and their relationship quickly evolves. Is it love?

Her neighbors want to catch the foxes—they are pretty sure there must be many—, or exterminate them, if possible, but Mary ends up taking matters into her own hands to safeguard the well being of her newly found lover.

How to Be Human is a unique, imaginative first novel. It is rather short, and beautifully written. It is a literary page-turner so delightfully quirky, that when I wasn't laughing out loud, I was chuckling. However, I wasn't fond of the events leading to the ending; I thought that the story took a weird turn, fitting within the context, but too weird to make me fully love it.

DISCLAIMER: I received from the publisher a free e-galley of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Most of us who has ever had a pet know how very human they can be….in fact, in some instances they are a better version of ourselves. Even on those days when we ignore them they remain loyal, loving, non-demanding and most importantly non-judgmental. Accepting us for whom and what we are, they can bring joy and fulfillment into tedious monotony of every day, as they unselfishly provide us with a special place in their world.

In HOW TO BE HUMAN author Paula Cocozza takes us into the life of Mary, who has recently split from her boyfriend/fiancé of four years and finds herself going through a mild depression. She hates her job, feels a bit “put upon” by her neighbors and their wailing children, has lost interest in keeping a tidy house and is being stalked by her domineering and somewhat intimidating ex who still has the keys to her house and appears to not know the meaning of the word NO.

In her precarious frame of mind Mary spies a fox in her garden and after observing it becomes convinced that the fox understands her and that they have a special bond. Told from Mary’s perspective (as well as that of the sly old fox), the narrative takes us into Mary’s thoughts and her obsession with the fox who appears to be her perfect partner in life – bringing her gifts, understanding her every mood and providing solace in her time of need. Has Mary lost it by granting human feelings to this creature from the wild? Is there truly an understanding developing between them or is foxy just what his name implies?

This is an unusual story and probably not for every reader but for this reader it was an insightful look into the moral intricacies of life and what it really means to be human.

I haven't finished reading the book, but I'm not sure that I will...I thought the description was intriguing and mysterious when I requested an advanced copy from Netgalley. However, after I began reading it, I was not intrigued by Mary's obsession with the fox. I skipped loads of pages just trying to stop reading her endless drivel about the fox, and god forbid the fox's chapters. Although well-written, the attempt to go beyond what's already been done (about abusive relationships, or any book ever) was a massive failure in my honest opinion. I *was* interested in her relationship with Mark and I wanted to hear more about it, but the intrusion and delusion that was the fox ultimately turned me off.

Wow. What a strange and brilliant book. Extremely uncomfortable and odd, yet beautifully written and evocative, this is one of the best recent debut novels I have read. It's painfully accurate in its depiction of Mark's abusive, controlling behaviour towards Mary and her resultant breakdown, a maelstrom of emotions she channels into a bizarre obsession with a fox and a compulsion to steal her neighbours' baby. At times this book made me feel unwell, but I couldn't have stopped reading if you'd paid me. This is definitely one to watch.

What a strange and wonderful story!! I loved its exploration of loneliness. Such a terrific read!!

The London suburb Mary lives in has become overrun with wild foxes. Mary, who feels slighted by her neighbors and is on leave from her job notices one fox in particular, that comes to her garden everyday. A fox that seems as interested in Mary as she is in it. Every day, the two watch each other, and Mary swears she sees the fox wink at her. He brings her little gifts and it’s not long before she invites the fox into her home. One night, Mary arrives home to find a baby on her steps. Did the baby’s mother (Mary’s neighbor) leave the baby there in some sort of post partum depression? Could the fox have brought her the baby? As Mary’s neighbors plot to rid the neighborhood of foxes for good, Mary wonders just who is helping who. I loved this slightly quirky story about love, belief and finding your way