The Midnight Library is a fantasy novel by Matt Haig, published on 13 August 2020 by Canongate Books. It was abridged and broadcast on BBC Radio 4 over ten episodes in December 2020.
The novel follows a 35 year old British woman unhappy in her dead-end life who is given the opportunity to experience lives she might have had if she had made different choices.
Plot
The book's protagonist is a young woman named Nora Seed who is unhappy with her choices in life as a sixteen year old and remains unhappy nineteen years later. Her best friend is in Australia, she just got fired and her cat just died, and she feels like she’s useless. During the night, she tries to kill herself but ends up in a limbo library managed by her school librarian, Mrs. Elm. The library is situated between life and death with millions of books filled with stories of her life had she made some different decisions. In this library, she then tries to find the life in which she's the most content. However, the only lives she can access are those that are possible, as she can’t find a life where her cat is alive (due to his restrictive cardiomyopathy). In one possible life she tries to reunite with her boyfriend and finds herself married to him, but it is not the way as she expected. Her life where she lives in Australia to be with her friend is a failure as she had died in that universe years prior. She then tries a possible life where she becomes an Olympic swimmer, however, she finds it unfulfilling and messes up her TED talk. She also sees herself as a glaciologist doing research in the Svalbard archipelago in the Arctic – a very different life from the one she tries to escape, but not necessarily a better choice. She meets another limbo traveler, Hugo Lefevre, who’s used to traveling around different lives and has a brief relationship with him. Her face down with a polar bear makes her realize she doesn’t really want to die as much as she thought she did. Her next life features her in a successful band, yet its glories fade when she finds out her brother died years ago and that she’s broken up with a famous movie star who she idolised in her root life. She has several other lives with several other people, finally settling on a life where she majors in Philosophy and is married to Ash, a surgeon who bought guitar books from Nora in her root life. This life, by far, seems the best of the lot, but she remains terrified of returning to the limbo library. She notices that a boy she tutored in piano is now constantly in trouble because there was no piano tutor to help him, the neighbor she supplied with medicine doesn’t know her, and she feels completely lost. She returns to the limbo library, which is breaking down, and writes I AM ALIVE in a book. She returns to life and everything is magically better, her brother comes to visit, she plans on talking to Ash and resumes her piano lessons. She finally meets her former librarian in a nursing home and the two play a game of chess.
Reception
The Midnight Library was named a bestseller by The New York Times bestseller, The Boston Globe, and The Washington Post. Good Morning America selected it as a Book Club Pick.
Booklist and BookPage gave the book a starred review. The Book Reporter and The Arts Desk raved about it. The book also received positive reviews from The New York Times, The Guardian, ZYZZYVA, The Scotsman,The Sunday Times, Library Journal, Kirkus Reviews,The Washington Post, Publishers Weekly, and Post Independent. NPR gave a mixed review.
The book was also included in "Best of" lists from The Christian Science Monitor, Amazon, PureWow, She Reads, Lit Hub, St. Louis Public Radio, and The Washington Post.
The Midnight Library was adapted for radio and broadcast in ten episodes on BBC Radio 4 in December 2020.
