The premise is bleak--the protagonist Nora is at the point of despair, contemplating suicide. When she takes that decisive act, she does not die but wakes to find herself in the in-between world of The Midnight Library. There she encounters Mrs. Elm, her grade school teacher, who guides Nora to select her next title. Every book in the library is a possible life she could live and stay in. The magical elements of this story are firmly rooted in Nora's self knowledge and her exploration of regret.Publisher description:
While we all wonder how our lives might have been, what if you had the chance to go to the library and see for yourself? Would any of these other lives truly be better? In The Midnight Library, Nora Seed finds herself faced with the possibility of changing her life for a new one: following a different career, undoing old breakups, realizing her dreams of becoming a glaciologist. She must search within herself as she travels through the Midnight Library to decide what is truly fulfilling in life, and what makes it worth living in the first place.