This book is on the best read list of the New York Books list. That sentence is redundant I know. But as I see it, it has a reason to be. It is a good tale.
What is there were a library that contained all the books concerning life choices you could have made during your life time. Call this library The Midnight Library and it is located between life and death Each book there concerns a life you would have experienced had you chosen a certain way.
For example, had you stayed in that band you were in at some point in your life, or you had chosen that profession over another? Would it be a satisfying decision?
in this book we are presented with Nora Seed. She wants to die. Her life has been one full of regret and misery. She feels has has let everyone down, including herself.
She finds herself between life and death in The Midnight Library. Time has stopped. She finds a librarian there and books. And a book of regrets. The librarian tells her she has a choice now. Each book in the library contains a different life if she had done things differently. She is allowed to sample books and experience a new choice. But time is running out. She can go a number of infinite ways. But time is short. She can undo her regrets. But by doing so she puts the library in extreme danger.
The book reminds me a bit, not entirely , of the books of Charles Williams who wrote in his novels of the two universes, spiritual and mundane, going on at the same time. But not completely. Or of C.S. Lewis The Great Divorce. But not quite that either. It is familiar to those two.
Nora grows through her choices. She finds the peace she was looking for..
I recommend this book. It presents a story about the choices that go into a life well lived. It is worth your time to read with a cup of coffee. it is published by Viking and runs about $26.00. Try to find it in your library (not the Midnight Library) and enjoy. Or locate it, if you want to pay for it, at your local bookstore.
