The Midnight Library

For Nora there appeared to be no reason for living until she found herself in a space between life and death. In the Midnight Library she once again met her former school librarian, Mrs Elm, who introduced Nora to a heavy volume listing the many regrets that Nora had about life. The rest of the library was full of books that allowed Nora to slide back to the incident causing the regret and discover the outcome good or bad that could have occurred. What may her life been if she had made other choices? The more life events that Nora encounters, the lighter the book of regrets becomes.

As Nora investigates how her life may have been she gradually realises that much of her life had been lived endevouring to please family and friends and often the regrets that she accrued were not necessarily due to her own faults. As Nora learns more about herself she realises that she really wants and needs to live.

In The Midnight Library Matt Haig ues the cocept of the possibility of many lives lived governed by choices made and allows characters to slide (time travel) between those lives. However this only works when the clock in the Midnight Library remains at 12 pm. Once time moves on the Midnight Library will be destroyed. The Midnight Library is about the many choices we make in life and adjusting to the relationships and consequences that can arise from those choices.