The Midnight Library summary

Nora Seed is playing chess in the school library with the librarian, Mrs. Elm. They chat as they play. Sixteen-year-old Nora is worried about her future. Her dad says she’s thrown it all away by giving up swimming. Mrs. Elm disagrees. She tells Nora she can become anything she wants. After all, there’s more to life than swimming fast. The possibilities are endless.

Mrs. Elm reminds Nora that she’s previously suggested she could become a glaciologist. But just then, the phone rings. Mrs. Elm answers and seems to be receiving bad news … Nora’s dad has died.

In this Blink to Matt Haig’s The Midnight Library, we’re going to guide you through the many lives of Nora Seed and offer a short analysis of the prominent themes at the end of each section.

Ok, back to the story, where Nora puts the pieces of her new reality together. She and Dan are married, and they own The Three Horseshoes pub. But not everything is rosy. Dan is irritated by everything Nora says, he’s a heavy drinker, the pub isn’t working, they’re facing financial difficulties, and to cap it all, Dan has been cheating on her. She realizes this really isn’t the life she imagined it would be and a moment later, she’s back in the Midnight Library.

Nora complains that it wasn’t how she imagined and Mrs. Elm tells her it’s hard to predict the consequences of changes. Nora still wants to die. She believes she’ll be just as miserable in all her other lives. But, encouraged by Mrs. Elm, Nora tries another life, one where she keeps her cat, Voltaire, indoors.

Arriving in that life, she calls out for Voltaire and he doesn’t come. Eventually, she finds him lying, unmoving, under the bed. When she touches his cold, lifeless body, she’s sad and confused and ends up back in the Midnight Library.

She tells Mrs. Elm that she asked for a life where Voltaire was alive. But actually, she didn’t, only one where she kept him indoors. It turns out a life where Voltaire is alive doesn’t exist as he has a severe heart problem. Nora is upset by the whole experience, but Mrs. Elms explains that it has changed her – it’s allowed Nora to see that she wasn’t a bad cat owner, at all.

In the next life Nora tries, she’s relocated to Australia with Izzy. But she soon finds out that Izzy died in a car accident shortly after they arrived. Overcome with grief, she leaves this life too. She’s despondent and thinks it’s impossible for her to find a happy life, but Mrs. Elm reminds her that the outcome of her decisions can’t be controlled.

On to the next life. Nora’s a famous Olympic swimmer now. She’s won many competitions and is also a public speaker. She discovers that she’s close to her brother and he’s become her manager. Her father is still alive, but her mother is dead. She became an alcoholic when Nora’s dad ran off with the mother of a Ukrainian swimmer. Nora finds out she’s experienced mental health problems in this life, too.

She gives a speech about success. She says that although she’s successful as a swimmer, her life is still full of struggles. The audience grows uncomfortable with the speech. Nora concludes by telling everyone to be kind. She promptly fades away.

Back in the Midnight Library, things have become unstable – its very existence depends on Nora being alive. If she dies, it will collapse. After some reflection, Nora decides to try a life where she’s become a glaciologist.

ANALYSIS

These first four lives touch upon the themes of regret, control, loneliness, and success.

Nora’s regret about ditching Dan results in her choosing a life where she married him and bought a pub. But things haven’t turned out that well. She observes that even if she makes different choices the resulting life isn’t necessarily better.

In the next life, she’s shocked to discover that even though she kept Voltaire indoors, he’s dead. It becomes clear that although she can change some decisions she’s made, actually, she has no control over the outcome. But Nora is able to release the guilt she’s felt about some of her life choices.

In Australia, when Nora discovers that Izzy is dead, she’s devastated that going with Izzy hasn’t brought them closer together. She feels lonely. This loneliness extends into her next life as an Olympic swimmer, too. That life is mostly unrecognizable compared with her root life, but she’s happy to discover she’s close to her brother. She realizes how much she missed him.

Nora’s speech as an Olympic swimmer allows her to reflect on what success really means. She tells her audience that it’s often dependent on external ideas rather than our own. Success isn’t something you can measure, and life isn’t a race to be won. She continues by saying that success is merely a delusion and that even seemingly successful people have problems.

Nora wakes to find herself on a ship. When she sees glaciers through the window, it feels good that she’s living a life of true adventure. She’s very frightened when she has a close encounter with a polar bear on the ice. She wants to go back to the library but finds she can’t. In the face of death, she realizes that she really does want to live. Eventually, the bear leaves.

Later, she talks to Hugo, a member of the research team. He’s recognized that she’s trying alternative lives as he’s doing the same. He doesn’t have a library, though, he has a video store, and his guide is his uncle. He’s seen many lives and met other people in the same situation. He explains that each person has their own version of the library and their own guide – always someone who has been significant in their lives.

Hugo tells Nora that he wants to live out all of his possible lives and he never stays in a life for very long – he’s always wondering what’s happening in another one. They end up kissing and sleeping together. But Hugo seems so detached that Nora feels disappointed and finds herself back in the Midnight Library.

The next life Nora asks to try is one where The Labyrinths have made it big. She plays a show in a full stadium in Brazil. Ravi is there but not Joe. During an interview, Nora discovers that Joe overdosed two years ago. She’s soon back in the Midnight Library.

ANALYSIS

Nora’s encounter with the polar bear reawakens her will to live. The risk of death makes her want to live even if the current life she’s in isn’t the one she actually wants. Nora’s conversations with Hugo highlight the endless possibilities that there are in life.

As a rockstar, there’s a return to the theme of success. Nora finds she still has mental health issues and has had to deal with the loss of her brother. This echoes Nora’s discovery when she was an Olympic swimmer that every possible life has its ups and downs.

Nora’s life as a glaciologist is in sharp contrast with that of a rockstar – two lives very different from each other and also from her original life. Nora becomes aware of how much potential she has, but also how the reality of fantasy lives isn’t always as appealing as the imagined life.

Nora wants it all to stop. It’s all too painful. She doesn’t want another life. Mrs. Elm reminds Nora of the polar-bear incident and how much she wanted to live. She likens Nora’s actions to how she used to play chess at school, losing her main pieces early on and how she’d then react like the game was over. She goes on to remind Nora that even pawns can become queens – so she has to keep going.

Nora realizes that the lives she’s tried so far have been someone else’s dream and not hers. The pub was Dan’s. Australia was Izzy’s. Swimming was her dad’s. When it came down to it, even becoming a glaciologist had been Mrs. Elm’s. And The Labyrinths? Well, that had been her brother’s.

She agrees to try lives with smaller adjustments and asks for a “gentle” life where she works with animals.

Nora finds herself in a life where she works with her boyfriend in an animal shelter. She finds out that they’ve known each other since secondary school and now they’re making plans to move in together. But Nora soon realizes that this isn’t really the life she wants.

In the next life, Nora owns a vineyard with a Mexican guy she met during her gap year. Although they’re happy, her life isn’t really fulfilling.

She tries some other lives. In some, she stays for no more than a minute. In others, she’s there for days or even weeks. In one life she’s a novelist. In another an architect. Then a photography editor for National Geographic. A concert pianist. A lecturer in philosophy. A travel blogger. A single parent. A showbiz columnist for a tabloid newspaper. An aid worker. A cat sitter. A volunteer in a homeless shelter. A music teacher in Montreal … 

Nora comes to realize that the reason she tried to take her own life wasn’t that she was miserable but because she couldn’t see a way out. She meets Hugo again and tells him that she’s beginning to forget who she is. She needs something more stable.

Back in the Midnight Library, Nora’s concerned to find that it’s dark. Mrs. Elm tells her that it’s because Nora’s a little bit lost. Nora feels she may be trapped, too, but Mrs. Elm assures her that the books are still there and there are still possibilities. Nora says she just doesn’t understand life. Mrs. Elm tells her that she doesn’t need to understand it, she just has to live it.

Thinking about Ash and his kindness when Voltaire died, Nora decides to try a life where she went for a coffee with Ash.

ANALYSIS

The “gentle” life is filled with kindness. She cares for the dogs and has a thoughtful boyfriend, but she thinks the Nora who chose this life deserves to live it. The elements of kindness do bring her closer to her “perfect life” which follows later.

Her life on the vineyard makes Nora realize that her happiness in that life is only superficial. She also finds that it’s not really as she imagined it would be. She goes on to try many lives in this section, some have big impacts on her life, others only minor ones. But she becomes detached from herself and lost in possibility.

When Nora thinks about kindness again, she remembers Ash and wonders what life would have been like if she’d been single and able to accept the offer of a date. It’s a minor change to her original life, but one she’ll soon find out can change the future life she leads.

Nora wakes to find herself in bed with Ash. Feeling the ring on her finger, she knows that they’re married. Curious to know more about this life, she reaches for her phone, which is, as always, by the bed. Creeping out of the room, she encounters a little girl who promptly tells her she’s been having a nightmare. The girl calls her “Mummy,” so it’s clear that they have a daughter together. Her name’s Molly.

Nora comforts Molly, and through playing a game finds out more about her life here. She and Ash are happily married. Molly is their only child. They have a dog, Pluto. Nora is a professor at Cambridge. Ash is a surgeon. Nora is close to her brother.

The next day, she finds out that she’s on a sabbatical to write a book. Exploring the house, she discovers there are no anti-depressants. Perhaps she’s found the life where she’s going to stay. A life where she can be happy. A perfect life.

Nights and days pass. Nora becomes more and more content. She begins remembering things about this life that she’s never lived herself – a kind of déjà vu. She sometimes slips up and says something out of place but the frequency declines.

She decides to visit Mrs. Elm but discovers that she’s passed on in this life. She also sees Leo, her former piano student, being arrested by the police – without his lessons, Leo has struggled to keep out of trouble. As she goes home, she begins to feel herself fading away again.

ANALYSIS

The life Nora has found with Ash seems to be perfect. She’s happily married and has a daughter, the perfect job, and a good relationship with her brother. She becomes more and more accustomed to this perfect life but still feels something isn’t right. Finding out that Mrs. Elm has passed away, and seeing Leo get arrested helps her understand that no life can be perfect.

She learns, though, that small changes can have a profound effect and she understands that she can also change her original life. She can be happy there too.

The Midnight Library is burning. Mrs. Elm tells Nora the reason she’s back is because she’s decided to live, but now she must escape from the library. Nora finds the book of her original life and opens it. The pages are blank. Using a pen given to her by Mrs. Elm, she eventually writes “I am alive” and is transported back to her root life.

She wakes up and throws up. She manages to get to her neighbor’s house to ask for help before passing out. 

Later, Joe visits her in the hospital and they patch up their relationship. Izzy sends Nora a text message saying she’s planning on returning to the UK. After leaving hospital, Nora puts posters up advertising her services as a piano teacher. Leo’s mother contacts her and says he wants to continue with his piano lessons. 

Nora finds herself feeling optimistic about where her life is heading.

Finally, she travels to Mrs. Elm’s retirement home and they again play chess together. They talk about the endless possibilities of chess and how it’s impossible to know how it will progress until the end.

ANALYSIS

When Nora returns to the Midnight Library it’s falling apart and on fire. When she writes “I am alive” in the book of her original life, she finds herself back there and manages to get to her neighbor before passing out. But she has a strong will to live.

The game of chess at the end of the book, with its endless possibilities, reminds us that just as the chess game can proceed in many ways, so too can Nora’s life.

Nora Seed was very unhappy with her life and decided to end it. She finds herself in the Midnight Library where she’s guided by the librarian, a version of Mrs. Elm, to try out alternative lives. She discovers that things in these realities aren’t as she imagined they’d be. Eventually, she finds what she thinks is a perfect life, but she also realizes her original life is just as valuable. She decides to live. Returning to her original life, she finds she has fewer regrets and is more optimistic about the future.

At the end of the story, Nora is looking over the chess board considering her next move. She feels more in control of her possible choices and the fact that they may lead to a number of possible futures.