Now, she understands that the point of life is life itself. She’s always thought of life as an event that should be magnificent. Nora’s problem, it turns out, is her perception of life. It’s not until Nora comes face-to-face with a polar bear intent on killing her that she realizes she has wanted to live this entire time. With each life, Nora learns a little more about herself and the meaning of life. Nora experiences many lives, including one in which she marries Dan, one in which she and Joe make it big with their band, one in which she marries a kind soul named Ash, one in which she sticks with swimming and becomes rich and successful, and one in which she pursues glaciology. Elm by trying on countless lives and attempting to find the meaning of life.

The concept confuses Nora because she simply wants to die, but she engages Mrs. She must use this library to find a life worth living before she dies. The place she is in is the Midnight Library, a quantum state that allows her to move between an infinite number or possible versions of her life. Nora soon learns that she is in an in-between state, hovering between life and death. She locates a building filled with books and, to her surprise, a librarian who is the spitting image of Mrs. She writes a suicide note and overdoses on pills and wine. Nora considers herself a black hole imploding in on itself. These setbacks, coupled with earlier hardships like Nora’s mother dying from cancer-Nora backed out of her engagement to her fiancé, Dan, two days before the wedding, she turned down a chance to move to Australia with her best friend, Izzy, and she backed out of becoming a rock star in The Labyrinths with her brother, Joe, and his best friend, Ravi-cause Nora to spiral into depression. Within the span of two days, Nora’s cat, Voltaire, dies, her estranged brother visits town but ignores her, she’s fired from her job at the music store String Theory, and her only music pupil, Leo, cancels his lessons. Nora still lives in Bedford and is living a lackluster life.

The narrative jumps 19 years into the future. Elm that Nora’s father has just died from a heart attack. Elm encourages Nora to leave Bedford and to take up glaciology. Elm reminds Nora that she can travel anywhere and be anything she likes. Nora has recently given up swimming professionally, to the chagrin of her father. The Prologue takes place in the Hazeldene School library, where Nora plays chess with the school librarian, Mrs. The novel opens with a startling fact: The main character, Nora Seed, will attempt suicide 19 years after the events of the Prologue.

The midnight library matt haig