The Midnight Library

Nora Seed has decided to die. No spoiler here, the book opens the early chapters with an ominous countdown to her death. In the ensuing hours Nora is let go from her job, we are reminded of the fiancé she left at the altar, the record deal she wouldn't sign breaking up a her promising band and estranging her from her brother, the Olympic swim dreams sidestepped, the lone friend on the other side of the world and to top it all off the death of her beloved cat.

In death though, she finds herself in a massive library filled with an infinite number of books tended by her grade school librarian Mrs Elm. Each book represents a life. A different one driven by different choices made where she becomes a wife, pursued her Olympic dreams, stayed on as the lead singer of her band and most importantly, saved the life of her cat.

Spoiler! Fame and fortune isn't a guarantee of happiness. Olympic medals, sold out international concerts, influential TedTalks aren't fulfilling on their own. Those paths not taken are no less fraught, not necessarily better. Blah, blah, blah - we've heard it all before. It's a 300 page Live, Love, Laugh poster. It reads like a novelization of a self-help book, Lord knows Matt Haig has made a name for himself examining his anxieties and working through his depressive tendencies.

My rational, judgy, cynical mind knows this and is ready to dismiss it out of hand - but I'm won over by the complete earnest, unironic commitment of it all. As Haig puts it - cynicism is a luxury for the non-suicidal. It's a self-help genre novel. You know how it's going to end, the conventions it's going to explore. It's a riff on It's a Wonderful Life set in the internet era. But the getting there is no less fun. It's a mystery to unravel each life Nora slips into. What were her expectations with this choice and how will it ultimately fail her? I blazed through this in a weekend. Reading it I was gently reminded that I am enough, that we all matter in the world and there's space ahead to make changes ...but I gotta be honest, that life on a winery sounded pretty damn good to me.