Matt Haig's novel The Midnight Library is a sweet allegory about depression and suicide – or perhaps, about choosing to live and discovering happiness, meaning, and love. The protagonist tries to kill herself. She appears in a limbo/bardo place, represented by an infinite "library", full of many-world quantum-mechanical "books", each a biography of an alternate life. She samples several, and eventually discovers ... well, that's the plot!

Midnight Library isn't terribly deep conceptually, the prose isn't terribly poetic, the characters aren't terribly surprising — and that's OK. The thoughts it offers are wise and kind. Good enough!

_{(cf Many Worlds Demystified (1999-10-24), Worst Zen Student That Ever Was (2012-03-10), Oblique Life (2013-08-14), Therapies for Depression (2015-10-04), Another Look at Depression (2018-08-12), Depression as a Gift (2023-01-16), ...) - ^z - 2025-01-11}