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The Midnight Library Reading Order
Matt Haig's The Midnight Library (2020) is a complete standalone novel. It is unrelated to Haig's other fiction. The novel follows Nora Seed, who has decided she wants to die, and discovers between life and death a vast library whose books each contain the life she could have lived if she had made a different choice. The Midnight Library was a number one Sunday Times bestseller, a number one New York Times bestseller, and has sold over 10 million copies.
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The Midnight Library
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The Midnight Library
Matt Haig·2020·Standalone — Nora Seed discovers between life and death a library containing all the lives she could have lived with different choices; a novel about depression, regret, and the things that make life worth living
The Midnight Library — Frequently Asked Questions
Is The Midnight Library a standalone?
Yes — The Midnight Library is entirely self-contained. Matt Haig has written other novels (The Humans, How to Stop Time, The Humans), a children's series (A Boy Called Christmas), and a memoir about depression and anxiety (Reasons to Stay Alive), but The Midnight Library is independent of all of them.
Is The Midnight Library a fantasy novel?
The Midnight Library uses a speculative premise — a library between life and death containing all the lives you could have lived — but is not primarily interested in the mechanics of that premise. It is closer to philosophical fiction or magical realism: the library is a device for exploring questions about depression, regret, possibility, and what makes a life worth living.
Is The Midnight Library about depression and mental health?
The novel begins with Nora at the lowest point of her depression, having attempted suicide. The Midnight Library is partly a novel about depression — Nora's experience of feeling that her life has no value — and partly a novel about recovery and the discovery that life is worth living. Haig has written about his own depression in Reasons to Stay Alive; The Midnight Library is a fictionalized version of some of the same themes.
What is the Midnight Library?
The Midnight Library is a vast library that exists between life and death, containing an infinite number of books. Each book contains the life Nora would have lived if she had made a different choice at a key moment. Mrs. Elm, Nora's childhood librarian, tends the library and helps Nora understand the rules. Nora can enter any book and live that life until she decides she wants to return — or until the midnight library itself begins to crumble.
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