- 3 days ago
- 4 min read
Updated: 2 days ago
Every now and then a book comes along that makes you wonder whether you've been telling yourself the wrong stories about your own life.
That's what The Midnight Library did for me. The plot is irresistible. Nora Seed finds herself in a library between life and death where every book contains a different version of the life she might have lived had she made different choices. Stay with the boyfriend. Leave the boyfriend. Become an Olympic swimmer. Become a musician. Study glaciers. Move overseas. Follow one dream instead of another.
It's the sort of idea that immediately makes you start writing your own list. Mine certainly began forming before I'd finished the first few chapters.
The funny thing is, I realised I wasn't really reading about Nora anymore. I was mentally revisiting my own decisions. The roads I didn't take. The opportunities I convinced myself I'd missed. The versions of Danielle that only exist because hindsight has a remarkable ability to edit out inconvenience.
That's the trap Haig understands so well. We tend to imagine our unlived lives as highlight reels. We remember the dream job without the stress that may have accompanied it. The relationship without the arguments. The move overseas without the homesickness. The success without everything that would have been quietly sacrificed to achieve it. We're incredibly generous when imagining lives we never had. Less so when evaluating the one we do.
As Nora steps into each new existence, that illusion slowly begins to crack. None of her lives is perfect. Every one solves one problem while creating another. Happiness remains frustratingly complicated, no matter which direction she chooses.
I found that ironically comforting. Not because the novel argues that every life is equally wonderful. It simply refuses to indulge the fantasy that one perfect decision would have solved everything.
I know this book has divided readers, and I completely understand some of the criticism. There were moments where I thought Haig could have trusted both his readers and his story a little more. Occasionally the philosophy is explained rather than discovered, and I found myself wishing for a little more subtlety. Depression is an extraordinarily complex subject, and there are places where the novel smooths over edges that, in reality, are much sharper. But I also think judging this book solely on that basis risks overlooking what it's actually trying to do.
This isn't a psychological case study. It's a novel offering hope to people who've become trapped inside their own regrets. Those are two very different things.
My key takeaway wasn't one particular alternate life. It was the gradual dismantling of the belief that fulfilment exists somewhere else. Somewhere just beyond one different decision. Somewhere in another version of ourselves who somehow managed to avoid disappointment altogether. I've become increasingly sceptical of that idea as I've grown older.
Life isn't a puzzle with one correct solution. Every choice opens one door while quietly closing another. The older I get, the less convinced I am that happiness belongs to people who chose better than the rest of us. More often, I think it belongs to those who eventually stop measuring their lives against imaginary ones.
Perhaps that's why The Midnight Library has struck a chord with so many readers. It doesn't really ask us to imagine different lives. It asks whether we've been unfair to the one we're already living.
Rating: ★★★★☆ (4/5)
Book Details
The Midnight Library — Matt Haig
Paperback ISBN
978-1786892737 (Canongate UK paperback edition)
Hardcover ISBN
978-0525559474 (Viking US hardcover edition)
eBook ISBN
978-0525559481 (Penguin Random House eBook edition)
Genre
Speculative Fiction; Literary Fiction; Contemporary Fiction; Magical Realism
Subgenre
Philosophical Fiction; Psychological Fiction; Existential Fiction; Literary Fantasy; Afterlife Fiction
Tropes / Literary Threads
Alternate lives; parallel universes; life review; second chances; regret; depression; suicide recovery; mental health; existentialism; finding purpose; self-discovery; forgiveness; hope; grief; family relationships; sibling relationships; friendship; love and loss; books about books; libraries; philosophical fiction; magical realism; mortality; resilience; embracing the present; the butterfly effect; choices and consequences; redemption; healing; possibility; living without regret
Publisher
Canongate (UK & Commonwealth); Viking (US)
Series
The Midnight Library Universe
Series Order
Book 1 (Companion Novel to The Midnight Train)
Formats Available
Hardcover; Paperback; eBook; Audiobook
Audiobook Narrator
Carey Mulligan
Australian Release Date
31 August 2020
Page Count
288 pages (hardcover edition)
Where to Buy The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
Affiliate Disclosure
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Danielle Robinson is a literary critic and writer whose work explores literature through the lens of atmosphere, memory, culture, and emotional experience. Holding a double degree in philosophy and theology, she combines academic insight with a deeply refined aesthetic sensibility shaped by more than three decades working across the creative industries as an internationally published, multi-award-winning makeup artist, fashion stylist, and interior stager.
She reads widely and rigorously, reading and reviewing more than 200 books each year as both an ARC reader and commissioned critic. Through Silk & Sentences, Danielle approaches literature as something immersive and lived with — not simply stories to consume, but works that shape the way we think, feel, and move through the world.
She writes from her semi-rural Queensland home, where she lives with Alex, her husband of 33 years, their dogs Oscar and Paige, and an ever-growing library of books.
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