About: Nora Seed feels useless. Her cat is dead, her brother doesn’t seem to be interested in her, and she has been fired: nobody needs her. Her best friend has left her for a hippy, Australian life. Late one evening, she tries to kill herself. But instead of death, what Nora finds is a library in which each volume represents a version of her life where she made different choices. The possibilities are numberless. There is a Nora who became a rock star, another who has won Olympic medals, another living aboard an Arctic research vessel; some versions are mothers, wives, orphans. In short, Nora was only limited by her imagination.
The Midnight Library is a book that emotionally moved something in me. Not only was it strong in writing, but this book is a friend that I feel we all need. The meaning behind the book is powerful, and the character depth is incredible as the story unfurls. The whole novel has the air of a skillful exercise designed to confront depression and anxiety. What’s the best that could happen in your life, and what’s the worst? What can you change, and what can’t you? These are big questions that are difficult to respond to with elegance and depth, and sometimes in moments of Nora’s elation or suicidal lows, the narration lapses into the trite and obvious – “the prison wasn’t the place, but the perspective”; “the paradox of volcanoes was that they were symbols of destruction but also life”. Contrary to the fantastical premise, the novel turns out to be a celebration of the ordinary: ordinary revelations, ordinary people, and the infinity of worlds seeded in ordinary choices. You need to read this book, and once you’ve finished it, you’ll realize you needed to read this book a long time ago.
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