Picture This: You’ve just died, and you find yourself at a library; when you enter you find a librarian and she explains to you that this library will allow you to change any decision you have made and live it out. Which decisions would you change? 

 

In the book, the protagonist Nora is feeling horrible; her cat has just died and she gets laid off. This leads her into questioning if life is even worth living, however things get worse; Nora goes to a travel agency to find his brother's friend but then coincidentally bumping into one of her old classmates. She starts to tell her how great her life is and how much expectations people had for Nora. These words were the straw that broke the camel's back, and she goes home and decides to overdose on tablets. She slowly gets transported to the midnight library and she is told she can change any decision she wants and live it out, so Nora tries out many different lives: One where she has babies, One where she decided to continue dating this guy, One where she decided to continue becoming a swimmer. But then she realises that some things simply can’t change, and even if they can; they lead to adverse effects on different people and parts of her life.

 

After finishing this book, I felt truly encaptivated, it personally helped me reason with my nihilistic belief in human life. One theme I found very interesting was the idea of contingency in this book (The idea of what contingency is basically the idea of a situation having possible changes due to one factor beforehand). And in this book it was presented during the different lives Nora lived; As an example when Nora decided to change her decision of not continuing playing in a band, there were adverse effects, as she realised that in that life, her brother died of an overdose. 

 

Another interesting thing about this book is the different philosophers quotes ranging from David Henry Thoreau to Friedrich Nietzsche; And I feel as though it adds a layer of wisdom into the book, and who knows! This book might encaptivate you to read Nietzsche!

 

In my personal opinion I feel as though this was a very solid read, It led me in the right direction in thinking and it also got me into reading different new philosophical ideas! I would personally recommend this book for anyone who feels sad about life or anyone who is into philosophy.