Books Like The Midnight Library

Matt Haig’s The Midnight Library became one of the most beloved novels of the decade by asking the question everyone has asked: what if I had made different choices? Nora Seed is a woman who has decided that her life is a failure - that she has disappointed everyone, including herself - and when she dies, she finds herself in a library between life and death, where every book is a life she could have lived. With the help of a librarian, Nora begins to try on her other lives: the life where she stayed with her band, the life where she became an Olympic swimmer, the life where she married the man she loved, the life where she was a glaciologist in the Arctic.

The book is about regret, about the lives we imagine we should have lived, and about the discovery - through all the parallel lives - that the life you have is the one worth living. If you have finished it and want more, here is where to go next.

If You Loved the Premise: Books About Parallel Lives#

The engine of the Midnight Library is its premise: the chance to live your other lives, to see what you missed, to try on the roads not taken. These books share the premise.

The Midnight Library, and the Lives We Almost Lived#

The book’s great invention is its structure: each book in the library is a life Nora could have lived, and the novel follows her through them - the successes and the failures, the joys and the sorrows, the discovery that every life has its own weight. The book is an argument about regret: that the lives we imagine we should have lived are not the lives we would have actually lived, that every choice closes doors and opens others, and that the life you have - with its particular sorrows and joys - is the one worth living.

The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August (Claire North)#

Harry August lives his life over and over - fifteen times, so far - and the book is about what he does with the knowledge of his repeated lives. It shares the Midnight Library’s premise - parallel lives, the chance to choose differently - with a thriller structure and a darker register.

Replay (Ken Grimwood)#

Jeff Winston dies at forty-three and wakes up in his nineteen-year-old body, with his memories intact - and the book is about the lives he lives, again and again, trying to get it right. It is the essential ancestor of the reliving-your-life premise, and it shares the Midnight Library’s question: what would you do differently, and what would it cost?

If You Loved the Regret: Books About the Roads Not Taken#

The Midnight Library is a book about regret - about the choices we wish we had made, the people we wish we had been. These books are about regret of the same kind.

The Midnight Library, and the Weight of Regret#

The book’s deepest subject is regret: Nora’s conviction that she has failed, that her life is a disappointment, that everyone would be better off without her. The book is an argument about regret: that it is a liar, that it magnifies the roads not taken and forgets the costs, and that the person who is sure they have failed is often the person who cannot see their own value. The book’s journey - through all the parallel lives - is a journey out of regret, toward the discovery that the life you have is enough.

A Man Called Ove (Fredrik Backman)#

Ove is a man who has lost everything and decided to die - and the book is about the neighborhood that keeps pulling him back into life. It shares the Midnight Library’s seriousness about despair and its discovery that connection is the way through.

The Time Traveler’s Wife (Audrey Niffenegger)#

Henry time-travels involuntarily, and the book is about the love story that survives his absences. It shares the Midnight Library’s fascination with time and the roads not taken, in a romance register.

If You Loved the Philosophy: Books About What Makes a Life Worth Living#

The Midnight Library is a novel of ideas: it asks what makes a life worth living, and it trusts its readers to think about the answer. These books share that seriousness.

The Midnight Library, and the Question of the Good Life#

The book is built on a question rather than an answer: what is a good life? Nora tries on her other lives - the famous life, the rich life, the life with the man she loved, the life in the Arctic - and each one turns out to be more complicated than she imagined. The book is an argument about happiness: that it is not in the achievements or the accolades, but in the small things - the people who love you, the work that matters, the moments of connection - and that the life you have is full of them, if you can see them.

The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)#

Santiago’s journey toward his Personal Legend shares the Midnight Library’s conviction that the journey is the point - that the treasure was where you started. It is the essential philosophical companion.

Tuesdays with Morrie (Mitch Albom)#

A dying professor and his former student, meeting every Tuesday to talk about the big questions. It shares the Midnight Library’s seriousness about what makes a life worth living, in a nonfiction register.

If You Loved the Depressed Protagonist: Books About the Way Back#

The Midnight Library begins with Nora at her lowest - a woman who has decided that life is not worth living - and the book is about her way back. These books are about protagonists of the same kind.

The Midnight Library, and the Way Back#

The book’s most moving thread is Nora’s journey out of despair: the discovery, through the parallel lives, that she is not the failure she believed herself to be, that she has touched lives she never knew, that the world is better with her in it. The book is an argument about despair: that it lies, that it narrows the vision, that the person in the depths cannot see their own worth - and that the way back is connection, meaning, and the small things. The book has been credited with helping readers through their own dark times, and it is that honesty that makes it work.

A Man Called Ove (Fredrik Backman)#

Ove is a man who has decided to die, and the book is about everything that stops him. It shares the Midnight Library’s seriousness about despair and its discovery that the people who need you are the people who save you.

Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine (Gail Honeyman)#

Eleanor is a woman with a wall around her heart and a past she cannot face - and the book is about the slow, funny, devastating process of her coming alive. It shares the Midnight Library’s structure: a closed heart, a way back, a life re-entered.

If You Loved the What-Ifs: Alternate Histories and Other Lives#

The Midnight Library is, in a sense, an alternate-history novel: every parallel life is a different history, a different Nora. These books are about alternate lives of the same kind.

The Midnight Library, and the Many Noras#

The book’s great pleasure is its tour of the parallel lives: the Nora who is a rock star, the Nora who is an Olympic swimmer, the Nora who is married to her childhood love, the Nora who lives in the Arctic, the Nora who is a philosopher, the Nora who is a mother. Each life is rendered with care, and each one teaches Nora something: that success does not equal happiness, that the lives we envy have their own sorrows, that every choice is a trade. The book is an argument about comparison: that the lives we compare ourselves to are not the lives we would have lived, and that the only life we can actually live is our own.

The Midnight Library (Matt Haig), and the Structure of the Book#

The book’s structure is its method: the library, the books, the lives - each chapter a different world, each world a different lesson. The structure keeps the book moving, and it keeps the question alive: which life will Nora choose, and what will she learn? The book is a page-turner and a meditation at once, and it is that combination that made it a phenomenon.

Sliding Doors (Peter Howitt) - and the Film Tradition#

The premise of the Midnight Library - two parallel lives, split at a single moment - has a long tradition in film: Sliding Doors, Groundhog Day, It’s a Wonderful Life. The book belongs to that tradition, and readers who love the premise will find the same pleasure in the films that explored it.

If You Loved the Comfort: Books That Feel Like Hope#

The Midnight Library is a book about despair that ends in hope - and that hope is the reason it has touched so many readers. These books deliver the same feeling.

The Midnight Library, and the Hope at the End#

The book’s ending is its argument: Nora chooses her own life - the imperfect, complicated, ordinary life she was about to leave - and the book closes with the discovery that it is enough. The book is an argument about hope: that it is not a denial of pain but a choice, that the life you have is worth living, and that the small things - a cup of tea, a walk, a person who loves you - are the things that make it so. It is a message that has carried millions of readers, and it is the reason the book endures.

A Man Called Ove (Fredrik Backman)#

Ove’s story is the same arc: despair, connection, hope. It is the essential companion for readers who loved the Midnight Library’s journey.

The House in the Cerulean Sea (T. J. Klune)#

An orphanage full of extraordinary children, and the caseworker who finds a family there: Klune’s book is the coziest possible novel, and it shares the Midnight Library’s conviction that the life you have - with its strange and wonderful people - is the one worth living.

Building Your Own Library: A Reading Order#

Here is a suggested path that moves from the closest match outward:

• Start with A Man Called Ove for the other great book about the life worth living.
• Move to Replay for the ancestor of the reliving-your-life premise.
• Try The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August for the thriller version.
• Pick up The Alchemist for the philosophical journey.
• End with Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine when you want the closed heart in a different key.

For more books with this kind of depth, our best clean books for adults list gathers substantial, wholesome reads, and our clean books for adults themes and values guide explains what makes them work. The stories section of our site is full of guides like this one, so there is always another life to consider.

The Life That Was Always Yours#

The Midnight Library endures because it is a book about the most important discovery there is: that the life you have is the one worth living. Nora Seed is sure her life is a failure, and the book gives her - and the reader - the chance to try on all the other lives, to see what was missed, to discover that every life has its own weight and its own worth. The book is an argument about regret and hope, about comparison and connection, and its ending - Nora choosing her own imperfect life - is one of the most moving in modern fiction. The books on this list are libraries like that: parallel lives, roads not taken, journeys out of despair. The library is open. The books are waiting. And the life you have - right now, this one - is enough.