The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

This book caught my attention as it was rated the Best Fiction book by Good Reads in 2020. For me, the book has lived up to the hype and maybe even beyond. I would like to start the review with an excerpt of the book :

She had a fire inside her.
She wondered if the fire was to warm her or destroy her.
Then she realised.
A fire had no motive. Only she could have that.
The power was hers.

This is the story of Nora Seed, 35-year-old, living in her hometown Bedford working at String theory, a local music store. As the story unfolds, we get to know that she has been a kind of wiz kid, excellent at many things like

Swimming: She was the fastest swimmer in her metropolitan area with a path that could lead to representing her country in the Olympics

Music: She was a lead songwriter and singer of a band called “The labyrinth’s” with her bother and a few others, with a record label offer

So, what happened? Why is she trying to kill herself?

This is where the author’s usage of philosophical fiction is a kind of genius move. He creates a Midnight Library where Nora lands up after trying to end her life, there she is met with Mrs Elm, her even sympathetic school librarian. The library is filled with books that could have been an alternate life for Nora. Mrs Elm motivates Nora to pick up a book and live that life. In case she likes that life she will stay there forever and if she wants to exit her life; she will be back in the library picking up another book, another alternate life to live for herself.

There is a very powerful concept of “The book of regrets” which is introduced in the book while she is looking to make her choice, as to which life to pick? The author has done a beautiful job of putting in words, the human emotion of “regrets”. How they ignore chronology, some regrets are fleeting, whereas some regrets are continuously there in the background, which bother us throughout. Nora chooses various lives to live to undo these regrets, however in the end she is able to find a lot more meaning in her own (root/ original) life going through this experience.

I am sure, a few of you are thinking, seems like a heavy read but let me assure you it’s not. In fact, humour is used in very prodigious ways. In one of her selected life, Nora enters swimming. As she gets out, she goes through a few comical steps to find back her way back to her locker and then subsequently to her home. These new lives, also create a sense of excitement and anticipation as to what will happen next and will she like this life?  

At the beginning of the book, Nora thinks of herself as a Blackhole: a dying star collapsing on itself. However, towards the end, Nora Seed thinking of herself as a Volcano. The paradox of volcanoes is that they are symbols of destruction, but also life. Once the lava slows and cools, it solidifies and then breaks down over time to become soil–rich, fertile soil. 

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