The Midnight Library - by Matt Haig

About the Book

Book Synopsis

A dazzling novel about all the choices that go into a life well lived, from the internationally bestselling author of Reasons to Stay Alive and How To Stop Time.

Somewhere out beyond the edge of the universe there is a library that contains an infinite number of books, each one the story of another reality. One tells the story of your life as it is, along with another book for the other life you could have lived if you had made a different choice at any point in your life. While we all wonder how our lives might have been, what if you had the chance to go to the library and see for yourself? Would any of these other lives truly be better?

In The Midnight Library, Matt Haig's enchanting new novel, Nora Seed finds herself faced with this decision. Faced with the possibility of changing her life for a new one, following a different career, undoing old breakups, realizing her dreams of becoming a glaciologist; she must search within herself as she travels through the Midnight Library to decide what is truly fulfilling in life, and what makes it worth living in the first place.

Review Quotes

"Whimsical." --Washington Post, named one of the 15 Feel-Good Books Guaranteed to Lift Your Spirits

An absorbing but comfortable read...a vision of limitless possibility, of new roads taken, of new lives lived, of a whole different world available to us somehow, somewhere, might be exactly what's wanted in these troubled and troubling times." --The New York Times

"Charming...a celebration of the ordinary: ordinary revelations, ordinary people, and the infinity of worlds seeded in ordinary choices." --The Guardian

"A brilliant premise and great fun." --Daily Mail

I can't describe how much his work means to me. So necessary...[Matt Haig is] the king of empathy. --Jameela Jamil, actor and host of I Weigh with Jameela Jamil

"A beautiful fable, an It's a Wonderful Life for the modern age - impossibly timely when we are all stuck in a world we wish could be different." --Jodi Picoult, author of My Sister's Keeper

"This brainy, captivating pleasure read feels like what you might get if TV's The Good Place collided with Where'd You Go, Bernadette." --People

"Thanks to the storytelling chops of writer Matt Haig, The Midnight Library is an engaging read, full of gentle insights and soothing wisdom... This is a book about shedding regret by gaining perspective. It's full of quirky plot lines, with glimpses of opportunities and potential in unexpected places and people." --Psychology Today

"A charming book." --Dolly Parton, award-winning singer-songwriter

"Although I don't read fiction as much as I used to--because I'm always writing fiction--during these sad and difficult days in 2020 I broke that rule because I needed to ­escape into other people's fictional worlds. One of my favorite books of the year was The Midnight Library by Matt Haig, a powerful and uplifting story about regrets and the choices we make."--Alice Hoffman, author of Magic Lessons and Practical Magic

"Clever, emotional and thought-inspiring." --Jenny Colgan, author of The Bookshop on the Corner

"Amazing and utterly beautiful, The Midnight Library is everything you'd expect from the genius storyteller who is Matt Haig." --Joanna Cannon, author of The Trouble with Goats and Sheep

"Nora's life is burdened by regrets. Then she stumbles on a library with books that enable her to test out the lives she could have led, including as a glaciologist, Olympic swimmer, rock star, and more. Her discoveries ultimately prove life-affirming in Matt Haig's dazzling fantasy." --Christian Science Monitor

"Would we really make better choices if we could step back in time? Matt Haig's thought-provoking, uplifting new book, The Midnight Library discusses just that, exploring our relationship with regret and what really makes a perfect life." --Harper's Bazaar (UK)

"British author Matt Haig is beloved in his home country, and he's a champion of mental health, which makes him a great person to follow on Twitter. He's best known for the novel How to Stop Time, but he has a new novel just out on September 29 called The Midnight Library, which sounds equally intriguing. In this library, Nora Seed finds endless books which contain different versions of the life she could have lived. This is a must-read for those of us given to endless what ifs." --BookRiot

"Haig is one of the most inspirational popular writers on mental health of our age and, in his latest novel, he has taken a clever, engaging concept and created a heart-warming story that offers wisdom in the same deceptively simple way as Mitch Albom's best tales." --Independent (UK)

Just beautiful . . . Such a gorgeous, gorgeous book." --Fearne Cotton, host of the BBC Radio 1 Chart Show

[The Midnight Library] will follow in the bestselling footsteps of Haig's earlier books . . . Part Sliding Doors, part-philosophical quest, this is a moving novel with a powerful mental health message at its heart." --Alice O'Keeffe, The Bookseller

"Haig's latest (after the nonfiction collection Notes on a Nervous Planet, 2019) is a stunning contemporary story that explores the choices that make up a life, and the regrets that can stifle it. A compelling novel that will resonate with readers." --Booklist (starred review)

"Charming...[Matt Haig] will reward readers who take this book off the shelf." --Publisher's Weekly

About The Author