“19 years before she decided to die…” is how author Matt Haig begins “The Midnight Library.”
This Award-winning New York Times Best-Seller List book grabs you from that first line and doesn’t let go. It has the intrigue and heart-pounding pace of a thriller, but provokes emotion and introspection at the same time.
The main character in The Midnight Library is Nora, a young woman whose life, in her mind, didn’t turn out as she hoped or planned. Her younger years were full of passion and dreams of swimming competitively, playing music professionally, and exploring the Arctic to understand climate change. But none of those dreams were realized, and the final straws of losing her dead-end record store job and the death of her cat lead her to the decision to take her own life. But did she die?
Nora ends up in The Midnight Library, a Twilight Zone way-station that finds her face to face with an old mentor who guides her through a book of regrets and the library containing “books” with infinite life paths that could have been. She has an opportunity to experience some (or all?) of those alternate realities with fascinating outcomes.
The Midnight Library is an insightful, sometimes depressing, always interesting, and in the end uplifting look at the concept of multiple universes in which we exist simultaneously, and each choice or decision slides us from one existence to another.
This book transcends genres in that it’s as much sci-fi/fantasy as it is romance, history, and self-awareness. Matt Haig makes you think about the meaning and value of your life and how it might just be your best!
Review written by: Larry Pollack
Pair It With:
Mezcal Margarita: Like a traditional margarita made with lime and agave, a mezcal margarita swaps out the tequila for a smokey mezcal.
