Beginning ~ in a library, of course

Beginning

Nineteen years before she decided to die, Nora Seed sat in the warmth of the small library at Hazeldene School in the town of Bedford.  She sat at a low table staring at a chess board.

"Nora, dear, it's natural to worry about your future," said the librarian, Mrs. Elm, her eyes twinkling.

Mrs. Elm made her first move.  A knight hopping over the neat row of white pawns.  "Of course, you're going to be worried about the exams.  But you could be anything you want to be, Nora.  Think of all that possibility.  It's exciting."

The Midnight Library ~ by Matt Haig, 2020, fiction, 288 pages

Between life and death there is a library.  Up until now, Nora Seed's life has been full of misery and regret.  She feels she has let everyone down, including herself.  But things are about to change.  When she finds herself in the Midnight Library, she has a chance to make things right.  The books in the Midnight Library enable Nora to live as if she had done things differently.  Each one contains a different life, a possible world in which she made different choices that played out in an infinite number of ways, affecting everyone she knew as well as many people she never met.

With the help of an old friend, she can now undo every decision she regrets as she tries to work out her perfect life.  But things aren't always what she imagined they'd be, and soon her choices place the library and herself in extreme danger.  Before time runs out, she must answer the ultimate question:  What is the best way to live?

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