The Midnight Library

by Matt Haig

‘You don’t have to understand life. You just have to live it.’

Never underestimate the big importance of small things, Mrs Elm had said. You must always remember that.

The impossible, I suppose, happens via living. Will my life be miraculously free from pain, despair, grief, heartbreak, hardship, loneliness, depression? No. But do I want to live? Yes. Yes. A thousand times, yes.

It is quite a revelation to discover that the place you wanted to escape to is the exact same place you escaped from. That the prison wasn’t the place, but the perspective.