"You don`t have to understand life. You just have to live it."

Whenever you approach a book you`ve been meaning to read for ages, a book which has been praised to the rafters and sold millions of copies, it`s a nerve-wracking thing........perhaps it`s been over-hyped, perhaps it`s not as good as everyone says.....what if you have to admit to not loving it ........

Well, phew! Matt Haig`s The Midnight Library is a clever, warm, poignant reflection on the way we deal with what life throws at us, how we react, what we regret and how we can find the hope and resilience to keep going.

These are universal themes but addressed here with such kindness and humour it`s hard to put the book down as you follow the many lives of Nora Seed. 

As Mrs. Elm, the librarian, says;
                    "Every life contains many millions of decisions. Some big, some small. But every time one decision is taken over another, the outcomes differ. An irreversible variation occurs, which in turn leads to further variations....."

A little suspension of disbelief is required as Nora tries out potential variations to the life she has decided to abandon because she is "just really crap at it. At life." She is in pain, aching with despair, not in a black hole but the black hole itself , full of regrets, "drowning in herself".

Thankfully the author doesn`t deal in pat answers and happy ever-afters because, guess what, life ain`t like that! And yes, ultimately Nora returns to the life she intended to leave (not really a plot spoiler) but aware that the important thing is simply to be alive:  without that there is no hope, there is no potential, with it there is ""a future of multifarious possibility".

Could have been cheesy, could have been sentimental, could have coloured everything rosy but it doesn`t.  Nora finds a way to embrace the simple fact of her existence, not seeking a nebulous `perfection` or giving up when it becomes clear there is no such thing. 

One of those books that will stay with you: it`s definitely worth a try - the book that is - though the same might be said of life.