The Midnight Library

by Matt Haig

‘Want,’ she told her, in a measured tone, ‘is an interesting word. It means lack. Sometimes if we fill that lack with something else the original want disappears entirely. Maybe you have a lack problem rather than a want problem. Maybe there is a life that you really want to live.’

Nora wanted to live in a world where no cruelty existed, but the only worlds she had available to her were worlds with humans in them.