Matt Haig is the author of internationally bestselling memoir Reasons to Stay Alive, along with five novels, including How to Stop Time, and several award-winning children's books. His work has been translated into more than thirty languages.
Between life and death there is a library. Up until now, Nora Seed's life has been full of misery and regret. She feels she has let everyone down, including herself. But things are about to change. When she finds herself in the Midnight Library, she has a chance to make things right. The books in the Midnight Library enable Nora to live as if she had done things differently. Each one contains a different life, a possible world in which she made different choices that played out in an infinite number of ways, affecting everyone she knew as well as many people she never met. With the help of an old friend, she can now undo every decision she regrets as she tries to work out her perfect life. But things aren't always what she imagined they'd be and soon her choices place the library and herself in extreme danger. Before time runs out, she must answer the ultimate question: What is the best way to live?
Sometimes we read books to escape from our lives. Other times, we read books to help us understand our lives. The Midnight Library falls just somewhere in between, having both the ability to give us a path to escape down, while also revealing all of the secrets of life in the meantime. See, Nora is a character who started off the novel entirely stuck in a downward spiral, where absolutely nothing was going right. Unfortunately, a lot of us can relate to this feeling, especially when looking at the past two years. In this, we find Nora a relatable character. That is, until she discovers the Midnight Library and readers are immersed in a world that feels full of magical realism, where Nora can essentially reverse all of her regrets by living out different versions of her life. Readers can easily get lost in this conceit—in a way, this novel is an adventure as we follow Nora's forays into all of these different worlds. Yet, Nora is discovering more than just what she is capable of when she dives into these lives: she's uncovering what living actually is. That is the power of this novel, to give readers both the ability to escape and the ability to understand, so that when we emerge from the pages we have a feeling that everything is going to turn out okay.
One way Matt Haig is able to craft this story is through the use of philosophy. Personally, I am not very invested in philosophy nor do I know too much about it. However, Nora considers it a huge part of her life, and Haig seamlessly incorporates quite a bit of philosophy into her story and lives. Much of the "school" philosophy gives Nora insight into the person she is in each of her lives. It also the words of Mrs. Elm's philosophy that guides her on this journey. And, at the end of the novel itself, Nora has crafted philosophy about life that the novel ends on, leaving us with the sense of hope and perseverance that Nora has been chasing all along. The way all of this philosophy was tied together was rather brilliant and digestible for most audiences. While I sort of predicted the ending a bit because of the philosophy, I was still pleasantly surprised to see my guess come true on the page, and to ultimately end with this entire novel that was essentially philosophy on the best way to live.
I mentioned above that Haig is able to both poignant and honest. I believe honesty is one of the most important values a person can have and practice, yet I will also be the first to tell you that honesty can be hard, the truth brutal. Being able to temper harsh realities about life with a poignancy that Haig creates is truly a gift. It leads to a novel that is both tender and no-nonsense. A novel that may not always tell you what you want to hear, but does so in a gentle manner. This balance is yet another reason I loved the book so much—it forces you to pay attention to the small details and to the truth within its sentences, to be able to leave with the larger, more truthful overall meaning. Because of this, I know this is not a novel I will quickly forget, and will be one that stays on my mind for quite some time.
For more Matt Haig, visit him at his website, matthaig.com.
*This review can also be found on my Goodreads page*
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