The Midnight Library by Matt Haig (2020) One library. Infinite lives.

The Midnight Library has won the best fiction book award of 2020 on Goodreads and for good reason. The story is about a girl called Nora who has had enough of living. When she decides to die, instead of death, she finds herself in a library. A library full of possible lives. A library that will let her redo her own life over and over again. By living alternative lives, she is able to address the regrets from her current life and is offered the possibility of finding a life worthy of living.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and I love Matt Haig’s engaging story telling style. Matt can tell a story with profound thought provoking truths, entwined in a thoroughly enjoyable work of fiction. The book, went a long way to answering a fundamental question: would a life without regrets, be the ultimate life worth living?

I liked visiting Nora’s possible lives, her adventures, and the truths she learnt about herself and the people around her during the course of these lives. However, I did find the ending quite flat, even if it tied up all the loose ends, and kept within the theme of the story. The ending just felt like a satisfactory conclusion. I wondered why? Perhaps it is because I preferred another life Nora lived? The one that left me with a tear in my eye? The one I hoped could be the life worthy of living? Well, I was wrong. Although a surprise, (at least to me) the life worth living should have been obvious.