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 exchanging her life for an alternate 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.

Nora’s story is as challenging as it is life-affirming, and in the process of seeing all of the ways it could have gone, she has come to value the life she lived for herself all the more. But her journey raises big questions about what we value in ourselves, in our relationships, and in all our successes and failures, big and small. As the story winds through Nora’s alternate lives, we are naturally drawn to ask the same questions about our own lives that she is exploring in hers.

This discussion guide was provided by Penguin Random House.

The Midnight Library

The Midnight Library Book Club Questions PDF