The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

Somewhere out beyond the edge of the universe there is a library that contains an infinite number of books, each one the story of another reality. One tells the story of your life as it is, along with another book for the other life you could have lived if you had made a different choice at any point in your life. While we all wonder how our lives might have been, what if you had the chance to go to the library and see for yourself? Would any of these other lives truly be better?

In The Midnight Library, Matt Haig’s enchanting new novel, Nora Seed finds herself faced with this decision. Faced with the possibility of changing her life for a new one, following a different career, undoing old breakups, realizing her dreams of becoming a glaciologist; she must search within herself as she travels through the Midnight Library to decide what is truly fulfilling in life, and what makes it worth living in the first place.

Book Review

This book is about a woman who feels she has nothing left to give to the world.  She lives in a world that feels utterly isolated and there’s no one she sees who needs her.  She is suicidal and ends up in The Midnight Library.  Where she meets a guide who allows her to explore an infinite library of lives she could have lived, and a chance to discover the weight of her regrets.

Nora Seed embarks on a unique adventure.  She explores various lives and possibilities.  She is greatly disappointed and intensely impressed with her accomplishments in some parts.  In others, she faces crippling grief at the loss of people she cares about, and in the end makes the decision to continue living.

The concept of landing in a The Midnight Library saves Nora from an otherwise devastating choice.  She is a character who is depressed and in a low moment in her life.  The Midnight Library does serve toward bringing her out of this low moment.  She rediscovers what she felt passionate about, who matters in her life, and even finds the existence she thought useless matters to a young man she gave piano lessons.  I love this book for adding an extraordinary magic into the mundane events in life.  Nora discovers that the best she can do with her life is simple, just to live it to the best of her ability. 

“If you aim to be something you are not, you will always fail. Aim to be you. Aim to look and act and think like you. Aim to be the truest version of you. Embrace that you-ness. Endorse it. Love it. Work hard at it….don’t give a second thought when people mock it or ridicule it.”

The Midnight Library, Matt Haig

No need to add anymore.