Book review: The Midnight Library by Matt Haig (Canongate Books).

The publisher’s description

Nora's life has been going from bad to worse. Then at the stroke of midnight on her last day on earth she finds herself transported to a library. There she is given the chance to undo her regrets and try out each of the other lives she might have lived. Which raises the ultimate question: with infinite choices, what is the best way to live?

My review

A  wonderful novel about Nora but also about us, through philosophical references, quotes, and metaphysical questions. 

“‘Go confidently in the direction of your dreams,’ Thoreau had said.”

“‘Compassion is the basis of morality,’ the philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer had written, in one of his softer moments. Maybe it was the basis of life too.”

“It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.”’ ‘You know Thoreau?’

A protagonist, who is initially, shy and quite passive, but who turns into a true and courageous heroine, thanks to her discoveries and adventures in the many parallel universes she visits. Alternate versions of her life allow Nora to understand that regrets are not always justified and that we have to think seriously before understanding the reasons for our disenchantment with life, with ourselves. Indeed, nothing is simple in this world! A novel that takes up themes dear to Matt Haig (known for his non-fiction works) and takes us on a journey while reflecting on the importance and danger of regrets, the endless choices that present themselves to us and transform our lives, of happiness, and of the values that drive us. An ode to nature, to philosophy, to love that saves everything!

To conclude

“I can never be all the people I want and live all the lives I want. I can never train myself in all the skills I want.” Sylvia Plath.

 

To dig deeper

Our review in French.