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The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

The Midnight Library (2020)
By Matt Haig 

258 pages (Kindle Digital Edition)

Rating : 4.75/5 

Genres : alternative reality, fiction, philosophy 

A rigmarole and long unwinding ride but it is strangely satisfying. Deeply philosophical and the reader emerges out of this book feeling replenished and cathartic. Matt Haig tries to redefine what it means to be successful and happy. He explains what makes for a fulfilling life and how to not be deluged by regrets. 

Most of us beat ourselves up with all the missed opportunities, all the ways things could have been different if a choice in the past was made  differently, all the things that were left undone/unsaid and desires left unexplored. One with such strong proclivity is the main character of this story .. Nora Seed. She has a huge list of regrets and missed opportunities in her life. She struggles with depression and unable to cope with life where everything seems to go against her - her parents dead, her swimming and singing career in tatters, her alienated and non-communicative brother, her nonresponsive and distant bestie, lost jobs and dead cat - finally makes a call to commit suicide. She overdoses on antidepressants and while hovering in the zone between life and death, she gets a chance to walk into a strange and mysterious Midnight Library. Here time is always stuck at midnight 12 AM. She meets her former school librarian as the orchestrator who sends her into different alternative lives where she gets to live and learn from different choices she made. She has the chance to settle down in one of these alternate lives which she feels the most happy and satisfied in. So which one does she choose? Is there a real happy ending when we redo our choices from the past? A soul used to living a certain way .. can it espouse any different style and can it feel content? What is the fate of Nora, a compassionate and nebulous soul in this journey? 

This is not the first book that has touched on this concept of multiverse and parallel lives .. but it is one of the most effectively written stories driving home exactly what the author wanted to convey. Strongly recommend this to all science and fiction lovers! 

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