Haig also writes award-winning books for children . But her brother would no longer be part of that band. Start your 48-hour free trial to get access to more than 30,000 additional guides and more than 350,000 Homework Help questions answered by our experts. They have a young daughter named Molly, and Nora was a professor at Cambridge but shes currently on sabbatical writing a book. In this novel, Haig addresses weighty topics through a main character, Nora Seed, who attempts suicide and must explore what it means to live while in the gray area between life and death. Major spoilers for "The Midnight Library" are ahead. The Midnight Library by Matt Haig ended up being a preachy, fictionalized self-help book that I didn't ask for and that wouldn't have helped anyway. to call for help. She is overwhelmed by her happiness but also plagued by the notion that this life is not hersit belongs to some other version of Nora, and she has taken it from her. The one that could be a messy struggle, but it was her messy struggle. 4. Now that youve read The Midnight Library, lets talk about the ending, Carolyn Hax: She dreamed she was cheated on, but her anger is real. A place of regret and possibility. Nora wonders if shes just someone who will be depressed and stuck in any life, but Mrs. Elm disagrees. The Midnight Library is a 2020 novel by Matt Haig. The one-paragraph version of this is: Nora Seed is unhappy in her life, tries to kill herself and finds herself at The Midnight Library, where she is able to try out different versions of her life. What do you think your Midnight Library would be? The trillion big and little things I would have stressed over or been excited about. It turns out, I didnt need a midnight library to shift my own perspective. Shes greeted by her school librarian, Mrs. Elm, who was always kind to her. Enough of a theoretical portion of an infinity that she feels as though she has seen them all by the time we're closing on the final pages. And then Nora wakes up. She is wracked with regret. The first few lives Nora tries on are those that absolve her biggest regrets. But while it's uncharted. Our teacher made us read this, now writing an essay about the book and this is quite helpful for summarising all the key events of the book so thanks. . Its about Nora, a young woman who decides she isnt cut out for life. Overwhelmed by regret, Mrs. Elm instructs Nora to close the book. to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. But every time one decision is taken over another, the outcomes differ. 2023 . Mrs. Elm summons an appropriate book, and Nora is then transported into a life where she had doggedly pursued her swimming career. It felt right. Instead she had to simply commit to one direction and go for it. Theres a guy, Ewan, that he has recently met there, and Nora enthusiastically encourages Joe to ask Ewan out. Where, for an hour, a day or a month, she gets to dip into and sample lives where she made different choices, with the ultimate goal. The last date is today's As Nora realizes, It is not the lives we regret not living that are the real problem. What would've happened if she'd stuck with the band she and her brother and their friend Ravi had started rather than bailing just when they were about to get big? online is the same, and will be the first date in the citation. 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. eNotes.com When presented with a chance to review The Midnight Library by Matt Haig, narrated by Carey Mulligan, I grabbed my earbuds and dove in. This is where we begin, in Matt Haig's new novel, The Midnight Library: with a young woman on the verge of making a terrible choice. But here's the problem. Nora is frustrated and unhappy when she sees Mrs. Elm again, and she wants to give up. As she gets to one part, many of the regrets are related to Dan. Dylan is a good person. Haig's novel is divided into 68 chapters. Haig lives by that here. Meanwhile, String Theory has closed down, as was the case in the Dylan reality as well. Matt Haig's latest book, 'The Midnight Library,' discusses the potential lives every human can experience depending on the choices they make in the present. Perhaps endless. She also comes across Ravi, her brother Joes best friend. Nora was once the songwriter in a band called Labyrinth with Ravi, Ella (Ravis girlfriend, now wife) and Joe that was on the verge of a deal with Universal, but Nora nixed her involvement in it. If youre interested in alternate lives, or reincarnation, look into the work of the early 20th Century seer, Edgar Cayce. On her way home, she spots Leo the boy she gave piano lessons to in her root life, calming his penchant for trouble in police custody. Mrs. Elm tells Nora how to exit, by finding the book representing her original life, and the Midnight Library dissolves. What details do you notice that show that this story is not taking place in the United States? So she ends it. Thats what Haig so beautifully demonstrates. The library offers her the chance to reflect on her life and her regrets and to try different lives, lives where she'd made different choices. This story is part of a series for people who have already read the book and want to think more deeply about the plot and ending. It was very easy going compared to some of these classics weve read. Your email address will not be published. Inside the library, Nora is met by a familiar face: Mrs. Elm, her school librarian from childhood. Every book provides a chance to try another life you could have lived. The mystery-horror series follows a group of eight terminally ill patients at Brightcliffe Hospice, run by Dr. Stanton. For a non-spoiler version of the plot synopsis, see The Bibliofile's review of The Midnight Library by Matt Haig. While talking with Raj, Lydia reminisces about her relationship with Gas 'n Donuts: "but her nostalgia for the place had never been strong enough to outweigh her dread of dredging up the past" (138). That is a simplification. The Midnight Library. Every night at midnight, the patients meet in the hospice library to. But, plot twist, each is about a life that could have been, had one made. Chapters 16 18 (The Chessboard, The Only Way to Learn Is to Live, Fire). With that, shes transported into the life of an Arctic Researcher. The library is her brains way of making sense of the theory of alternate universes, Hugo posits, and she is seeing Mrs. Elm as a guide because the librarian represents a comforting authority figure from her past. Few fantasies are more enduring than the idea that there might be a second chance at a life already lived, some sort of magical reset in which mistakes can be . Even days later, when my mind darted to the would-have, should-have, could-haves, I was able to redirect. About how human brains take complex information about the world and simplify it, so that when a human looks at a tree it translates the intricately complex mass of leaves and branches into this thing called 'tree'. Note: this article may contain spoilers for The Midnight Library by Matt Haig. The Midnight Club ending, explained. Somewhere between life and death, Nora Seed finds herself wandering the marble hallways of a never-ending library; "The Midnight Library.". Joe also tells Nora that hes thinking about becoming a sound engineer in Hammersmith, and theres a cross-training gym nearby. Every move had been a mistake, every decision a disaster, every day a retreat from who she'd imagined she'd be. Next, Nora tries something different, a life where she moves to America, marries a Mexican-American man named Eduardo Martinez and they live on a small vineyard in California. If this summary was useful to you, please consider supporting this site by leaving a tip ($2, $3, or $5) or joining the Patreon! Her personal relationships, too, have suffered. Maybe you already knew that regret is a waste of time; I hear it constantly. Chapters 32 35 (One Night in Longyearbyen, Expectation, Life and Death and the Quantum Wave Function, If Something Is Happening to Me, I Want to Be There). So she decides to die. A beautiful messy struggle.". Moreover, Nora must remember what she . Infinite possibility, sure, but only one shot at each of them. Suicide, she decides, is the only way to escape the misery of a life full of regrets. Chapters 19 23 (Fish Tank, The Last Update That Nora Had Posted Before She Found Herself Between Life and Death, The Successful Life, Peppermint Tea, The Tree That Is Our Life). Meanwhile, Nora worries that shell die for real if she doesnt find a life she has the will to live. Neil, her boss, is nice about it, but questions why shes still even working there since he thinks shes meant for bigger things. She thinks about how swimming was something shed pursued because it was important to her father, but not to her. Nora remembers playing chess with Mrs. Elm and getting the news that her father had died of a heart attack. The Midnight Club is an exploration of mortality, with every one of the teenagers facing their certain death in their own ways. In the dining hall, there are about 17 other people. Mrs. Elm: The librarian. She and her brother have become estranged to such an extent that he avoids her when he visits Bedford. Do you think by considering the ways in which our lives might have turned out differently our regrets truly go away, or do we simply learn to live with them? Nora discovers a life that she thinks is quite nice, where they have a young daughter named Molly and a dog named Plato. Nora leaves a voicemail for her brother and pens a suicide note, directed to whoever. Then, Mrs. Elm talks to Nora about what success means to her, and Nora realizes that she doesnt know. Each book represents a different version of Nora's life, a life of joys and sorrows, people and places, events and tragedies that spawned from a single choice, a decision, or in the case of this girl so full of regrets, something that didn't happen because she didn't make that choice. The books are portals to the different lives Nora could have lived if she had made different decisions. Banerjee!) In it, each book represents a portal into another variation of what her life could have been. As in the book that inspired it the Midnight Club is a gathering of terminally ill teens telling each other scary stories in front of the fire. See the archives. Matt Haigs magical novel The Midnight Library is a tonic to anyone who tumbles down this rabbit hole of what-if thinking. After being checked-in on by the doctors, Nora deletes the post shed written on social media before overdosing and replaces it with a hopeful post on what shes learned. Note: When citing an online source, it is important to include all necessary dates. More importantly, she is just deeply, seemingly irretrievably, sad. The Midnight Library by Matt Haig - Reading Guide: 9780525559474 - PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books The #1 New York Times bestselling WORLDWIDE phenomenon Winner of the Goodreads Choice Award for Fiction | A Good Morning America Book Club Pick | Independent. Netflix canceled The Midnight Club (co-created with Leah Fong) after season 1, so that tantalizing cliffhanger concerning a certain doctor won't be resolved -- well, you might have thought so,. Online, Nora learns that Izzy died a month after they arrived in Australia. The novel focuses on Nora Seed, a thirty-five year old woman from Bedford, England. Back at the Library, Nora admits that the alternate reality had been different than shed imagined. There is one book that is different from the rest. In The Midnight Library, Matt Haig's enchanting new novel, Nora Seed finds herself faced with this decision. Theres nothing wrong with the life, but theres a fakeness to it, and Nora lets that life go as well. A woman named Nadia calls, and Nora is shocked to learn that her dad is alive. But Nora longs to find a life to settle down in. Nora also seeks out the real Mrs. Elm at the care facility to resume their games of chess. The rest of his friends didn't love . She left her former fianc, Dan, just before their wedding. If she had become a glaciologist? Nora experienced it as a library because of the meaningful relationship she had with Mrs. Elm, her childhood school librarian. She's lost her job, her best friend, her brother. Really, it's a therapist simulator, minus the couch. Nora doesnt understand what is happening. In the days that follow, after shes released from the hospital, Nora mends her relationship with her brother and her best friend, and makes plans shes excited about. Matt Haig's magical novel The Midnight Library is a tonic to anyone who tumbles down this rabbit hole of what-if thinking. The Midnight Library opens with a teenaged Nora Seed, who is smart and a talented swimmer. This story is part of a series for people who have already read the book and want to think more deeply about the plot and ending. While the outcome is predictable, the forays into philosophy are relatable and offer good jumping off points whether to general philosophical ideas or to personal introspection. That the prison wasnt the place, but the perspective.. Nora has forgotten about the music lesson she was supposed to give Doreens son, Leo. On one especially unfortunate day, Nora is fired from both her regular and her side jobs, and her cat is found dead in the road. I read the whole thing in about 3 days. When Nora tries to visit Mrs. Elm at a senior living center, she runs into the old man she lived next to in her root life, whom she helped with prescriptions and shopping. What if she had married her fiance, Dan, instead of calling off the wedding two days beforehand? The Midnight Library. Mrs. Elm showed Nora the Book of Regrets when she first entered the library, and Nora was overwhelmed by it when she first looked in. Nora considers that her lives have largely been about other peoples dreams her brothers dream about The Labyrinths, her fathers dream about swimming, Izzys dream about Australia, Dans dream about the bar, and even Mrs. Elms suggestion about glaciology. The Library dissolves as Nora decides to live. The moment you decide you want that life, really want it, then everything that exists in your head now, including this Midnight Library, will eventually be a dream. The Midnight Library is a 2020 work of fiction by the New York Times bestselling British author Matt Haig. Where, for an hour, a day or a month, she gets to dip into and sample lives where she made different choices, with the ultimate goal of erasing those regrets and finding a life she's comfortable in. On her phone is a message from Dan saying hell be coming to Australia for work soon. Nora finds herself surrounded by mist, and she discovers The Midnight Library, where infinite rows of books represent portals into different variations of her life. During the interview, they podcasters reference a restraining order that Nora had against her ex-husband Dan Lord. Ultimately, Haig gives Nora (and those of us following along with her) a straightforward path from suicide to closure, from regret to acceptance. We tend to romanticize other variations of our lives we would have no cares in the world, if only we had done this and that differently. Back at home, Nora thanks Mr. Banerjee for his help, and seeing his lovely garden Nora is able to appreciate the beauty of it. While The Midnight Club already tells a beautiful story of self-acceptance and mortality, the show has plenty of loose threads to explore in an eventual Season 2 and the ending of the series . If Noras band had signed with a recording label, we learn, she would have made it big really big. The Library is falling apart, but Nora needs to find the book that represents her original life and write that story. He doesnt recognize her, though, because in this life they were never neighbors. A human sees the world in three dimensions. Should a savvy reader have seen it coming? Next, Nora asks to experience fame, and she is transported to a life where her band Labyrinth had made it big. The basic premise is that a woman called Nora decides to kill herself, and before she dies she finds herself in the Midnight Library. His latest novel is The Midnight Library and the audiobook edition is read by Carey Mulligan. Another prominent theme that I loved in the Midnight Library was that of regrets. Joe also tells her that he happened to run into Ravi, who he hasnt seen in 10 years in this life, and he invited Ravi to Noras talk. He also gently mentions that shes off-putting to customers and finally fires her. Follow along on Goodreads, or keep in touch via the newsletter. Shes dissatisfied with her life. She thinks about how she loves them and forgives them for the ways theyve disappointed her. After all, she loves to read, speaks fluent English, and has memorized the Dewey Decimal system for cataloguing library books. Whole. Elsewhere in the neighborhood, she sees the police arrest a boy for theft that turns out to be Leo. The Midnight Library is different for each person who enters it. Ed. There is sadness and pointlessness, soft meditations on the cost of fame and the dignity of smaller lives, lots of quotes from philosophers (because that's what Nora studied in school), and quiet thoughts about the weight of meaning in a universe where everything that can happen, does. Finally, Nora finds Mrs. Elm at the retirement home where she offers to play chess with her. With her regrets laid to rest and with hope for the future, Nora is able to turn her life around. Does it take a lifetime or a just few seconds? Also, in the original life, she and Joe had been there for her mother before her death. What do the stories mean? It occurs to her to try a life where shed accepted Ashs coffee date once upon a time, instead of rejecting it because shed been with Dan at the time. Chapters 66 71 (Awakening, The Other Side of Despair, A Thing I Have Learned, Living Versus Understanding, The Volcano, How It Ends). 2023 eNotes.com, Inc. All Rights Reserved. The only thing we truly need to change is the one thing we have complete control over: our outlook. When Nora asks why Mrs. Elm sent her into that life instead of just telling her outright that she wasnt a bad cat owner. Once thinks about how her family here (Molly, Ash, Plato, etc.) She meets and talks to Hugo Lefvre. Mrs. Elm asks Nora what book shed like to start with. The next day, nine hours before Nora decides to die, Nora is late for work. What do you think this says about the speed at which we decide things about our lives and ourselves? She is in a middle of a show in So Paulo, Brazil and Ravi is on-stage with her. Nora realizes that her parents not loving her properly as a child likely had more to do with unhappiness in their own marriage. The Midnight Library is a 2020 novel by Matt Haig. "In chess, as in life, possibility is the basis of everything.". Soon, Nora is jumping from possible life to possible life with ravenous abandon. For those readers who. The Midnight Library, which is the place people go when they find themselves hanging precariously between life and death and not entirely sure about which way to go. an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking 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. The book weaves elements of science fiction and fantasy with philosophical contemplations on human mortality, happiness, and personal choice.. After the talk, Nora is transported back to the Midnight Library, having realized that the successful life is not one she wants either. Noras mother, Donna, had at one point had some type of breakdown that resulted in her never returning to work. Hugo tells her that his version of her Midnight Library is a video store filled with VHS movies. While Nora is in the library, the librarian reveals that she has the freedom to explore these alternate options in search of a more favorable reality. Before long, things in Noras life start to turn around. Nora ends up trying out a multitude of lives and careers, ranging from becoming a single mom to running a winery or being an aid worker, but nothing sticks. Out of it she sees a building, which is revealed to be filled with endless rows of unlabeled books, all with covers colored in shades of green. He takes what could've been (what has been in so many other books) a dark or sad or curvy or weird spin through the logical and philosophical possibilities of regret crossed with multiverse theory and straightens it out. Mrs. Elm, the librarian, tells her that the books on the shelves represent other versions of Noras life. Nora sees that her neighbor, whom she used to help out, ended up having to move to a care facility. Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore (Sullivan) - Discussion Questions. The Midnight Club will tug at your heartstrings and have you piecing together its mysteries all at the same time. She tries one where her cat was never allowed outside on the night of his death, one where she followed her swimming potential all the way to the Olympics, one where she moves to Australia with Izzy, one where she becomes a glaciologist, and one where she signs a record deal and becomes an international rock star. Shed be very cold and almost eaten for lunch by a giant, menacing polar bear. Nora is upset and late for work, and she gets fired by her boss, Neil. Her situational grief and existing depression coalesce until she feels impossibly burdened by them, and she decides to take her own life. She had a difficult father, she became ostracized from her brother when she jumped ship on the band they were in together, just as it started to be successful. However, when she goes back to her hometown she sees that her absence has had am impact. Nora passes by String Theory and notes that it has closed not too long ago. Nora thinks about Dan, a man who worked in PR but had a dream of running a pub in the countryside. Nora lives a hundred lives. It was the ending that this broken character of Nora Seed needed and I am in awe of how Haig transformed a predictable ending into one that was naturally the part of her journey with The Midnight Library. Living has become nothing but a chore. Which path to commit to without regret.". Nora wonders if hell ask her out again, but instead Ash tells her that her cat, Voltaire (Volts), has been hit by a car. Not all of the parallel, or perpendicular, lives Nora tries on are so meaningful: In one, she argues with people on Twitter all day. date the date you are citing the material. The library is immense. Nora explores a series of these other possible realities, returning to the library each time she feels dissatisfied. He is apparently her manager, and he manages others as well. And the magnitude of that is staggering, given that a life can be determined or redirected by a single event. Tales From the Radiation Age is his latest book. Nineteen years later, its now 27 hours before Nora will decide to die. The book opens in the library at Hazeldene School in the town of Bedford. Piloting Your Life is Terri's debut book, ' an inspiring, well-researched beach read' written as a love letter to GenX women to design and live a life of their own creation'. They have to be intense, with complex story lines and big words to truly be a great book. At first, I wasn't sure I was going to like it, the first few chapters were quite triggering and after having a bad start to January I very nearly didn't prevail. Nora Seed is not happy with her life and so after her cat, Voltaire, dies and she loses her job, she kills herself. However, she remembers that Mrs. Elm had told her that once she settled into a life she wanted that shed eventually forget the library, but that doesnt seem to be happening. From there, Nora tests out a multitude of lives as a concert pianist, having a teenage son, as a travel vlogger, as a cat-sitter, as an aid worker and even coming across Hugo again. Shes professionally fulfilled writing a book on her favorite philosopher and about as content as one could hope. Afterwards, Nadia is very happy to see her brother Joe and that they get along well. Matt Haig's magical novel " The Midnight Library " is a tonic to anyone who tumbles down this rabbit hole of what-if thinking. Eventually, Nora is heartbroken to appear in the Midnight Library yet again. This is a streamlined novel; no side plots, no broad cast of characters, no twists of fantasy for the sheer joy of it. Nora scares it off with noise, as instructed. The author of the bestselling books Reasons to Stay Alive and Notes on a Nervous Planet has once again blessed us with an empowering novel. Please try again later. At midnight precisely, time seems to stop and Nora is engulfed in a mist. The NY Times. This recap of the Netflix series The Midnight Club season 1, episode 10, "Midnight," the ending explained, contains spoilers. Different packaging; same us. Matt Haig's The Midnight Library tells the story of 35 year old Nora Seed, following the night she takes an overdose. At home, Nora sees Voltaires empty bowl and takes two anti-depressants. As time passes, she finds herself feeling grateful for this life. To see how things would be if you had made other choices . Chapters 44 50 (Love and Pain, Equidistance, Someone Elses Dream, The Gentle Life, Why Want Another Universe If This One Has Dogs?, Dinner with Dylan, Last Chance Saloon). Mrs. Elm talks about her own regrets in life, how shes let people down and she thinks theyve given up on her. Mrs. Elm says that Nora has become lost because she's still trying to live for other people. Shed be living with a mean alcoholic who couldnt stand that she knew more than him and who was cheating on her to boot. In this life, she never ended up teaching him piano. Next, she asks to be taken into a reality where her version of Voltaire is an indoor cat, where she is a good cat owner and where he doesnt get hit by a car. He is currently the restaurant critic at Philadelphia magazine, but when no one is looking, he spends his time writing books about giant robots and ray guns. 9. Spoiler warning: these summaries contains spoilers. In the depths of her wallowing, she comes across the Midnight Library. Hugo has seen hundreds of lives and plans to continue to do so. Every book provides a chance to try another life you could have lived. Our club will be discussing this soon. In this storyline, she owns a pub with her husband Dan. In the original life, Doreen had looked into lessons because Leo liked music and had started getting in with a bad crowd. What do you think your Midnight Library would be? Photo by Ivo Rainha on Unsplash. While the concept does fly high, it also flies straight. Sometimes the elements of a really great book, but sometimes the elements of a non memorable one. Her brother arrives, and the two share a heartfelt reconciliation; Izzy texts to tell Nora how much she misses her; and Nora gets rehired at one of her jobs. She has spent over a decade unhappily working in a music store and finds herself struggling with her mental health. Afterwards, Nora wanders around town and thinks about Dan, her ex-fianc who shed left two days before their aborted wedding. In a last-ditch effort to save the world, The Midnight Suns decide they'll interrupt Lilith's ritual and destroy the Darkhold with the God Killer, cueing the team to suit up and head into battle . "well plotted and richly populated" For the young Parisian Odile Souchet in the winter of 1939, working in the American Library in Paris sounds like her ideal job. Nora thinks of their dashed hopes and considers that it was their unfulfilled expectation to achieve in the first place as opposed to the lack of achievement that caused their unhappiness. Nora experienced it as a library because of the meaningful relationship she had with Mrs. Elm, her childhood school librarian. Neil also allows Nora to put up some flyers at String Theory offering more piano lessons to others, and the ads have already gotten a large response. T.J.Parker 212 Followers My not so random reviews and thoughts It's about Nora, a young woman who decides she isn't cut out for life. Share this: Twitter Facebook Loading. It would be different, yes, but that doesnt mean better. What would've happened if she'd stuck with competitive swimming, been a better cat owner, been nicer to her parents, followed her best friend to Australia or become a glaciologist?