"Doing one thing differently is often the same as doing everything differently."
This quote is taken from early in the novel, as Mrs. Elm explains to Nora how lives are shaped by seemingly minor choices. This both suggests the potential for change in Nora's life and reveals the mechanism that allows her, using the "Midnight Library," to travel to different versions of her life. What she means is that often making a single small adjustment can permanently alter the course of a life. This theory is explored in the alternative lives generated by minor changes, like going on a date or not keeping a cat inside.
"Between life and death there is a library," she said. "And within that library, the shelves go on for ever. Every book provides a chance to try another life you could have lived. To see how things would be different if you had made other choices... Would you have done anything different, if you had the chance to undo your regrets?"
In this excerpt, Mrs. Elm explains how the Midnight Library works and the purpose that it serves. She tells Nora about how it exists as a space for her to see different versions of what her life could have been. The library allows Nora to reverse her regrets and pursue different iterations of her existence. This description lays out the mechanics of this otherworldly setting, framing Nora's subsequent adventures in the rest of the novel.
This was not the life she imagined it to be.
This moment occurs at the end of Nora's first adventure in a parallel life. In this storyline, she owns a pub with her husband Dan. In her present life, she wonders what might have happened if she had gone through with her engagement to Dan. However, she quickly discovers that their marriage is deeply troubled, as he drinks too much and is unfaithful to her. This line indicates that Nora is beginning to learn that marrying Dan would have been a huge mistake and that some of the things she regrets not doing would have turned out poorly.
It was weird, to have your own body offer clues to a mystery.
This quote describes the continual strangeness that Nora experiences as she moves through these different lives. In each of them, she gradually gathers details about the life she is inhabiting from conversations and the physical feeling of her body. It is odd because she is still herself but finds that everything about her life, down to the shape of her abs and the smoothness of her face, varies from life to life. In this way, she experiences separation from her body, as it provides "clues" to cracking whatever "mystery" is part of the life she is exploring.
And it became astoundingly clear to her, finally, in that moment:
She didn't want to die.
This quote occurs in the moment Nora is nearly attacked by a polar bear. Petrified by fear, Nora realizes she has to do something to scare off the bear before it mauls her. She discovers that she also cannot teleport back to the library. In feeling so overcome with terror, she also realizes that she wants to continue living. Though this immediate danger quickly passes—Nora survives the encounter with the polar bear and is complimented for her bravery by the other members of the expedition—this is an important moment in the book as it shows her definitively deciding she wants to keep living.
Maybe that's what all lives were though. Maybe even the most seemingly perfectly intense or worthwhile lives ultimately felt the same. Acres of disappointment and monotony and hurts and rivalries but with flashes of wonder and beauty. Maybe that was the only meaning that mattered.
This moment comes after Nora has traveled through a few different lives. She begins to reflect on the nature of success and she finds that even in her most glamorous or widely admired lives there is still disappointment and sadness. In fact, in her life as a rock star and her life as a competitive swimmer, she has severe mental health struggles and some fractured personal relationships. What she thinks in this moment is that there isn't really a so-called perfect life, but rather a series of lives with their own specific challenges, even if some appear more exciting than others.
"You know what the matter is. This whole place exists because of you. You are the power source. When there is a severe disruption in that power source the library is in jeopardy. It's you, Nora. You are giving up at the worst possible moment. You can't give up, Nora. You have more to offer. More opportunities to have. There are so many versions of you out there. Remember how you felt after the polar bear. Remember how much you wanted life."
This is a moment late in the book in which Mrs. Elm informs Nora that the library will cease to exist if she dies. It is important to the plot, as it reveals that, unlike Hugo, Nora cannot stay in this transitional space forever. It is also important in that it depicts Mrs. Elm trying to show Nora the value and importance of her life. She is attempting to tell her that, as her adventures have revealed, her life still contains so many hidden possibilities.
"This is the best life," she told herself, a little desperately now. "This is the best life. I am staying here. This is the best life for me. This is the best life. This is the best life."
But she knew she didn't have long.
This moment occurs late in the novel, after Nora has spent a great deal of time in her supposed "best" life. In this timeline, she is happily married to Ash, a surgeon who is her neighbor in her real life. She is a professor of philosophy and has a daughter. Her family resides in Cambridge. She loves this life and finds herself feeling both content and fulfilled, working on a book about Thoreau and spending time with her daughter. However, as this moment reveals, she comes to find that this life too has its shortcomings. Here, she finds herself slowly slipping away, despite wishing she could stay longer, as she knows this is not where she belongs.
At one minute and twenty-seven seconds after midnight, Nora Seed marked her emergence back into life by vomiting all over her duvet.
Alive, but hardly.
This moment comes immediately after Nora escapes the library with the Book of Regrets. She fights for her life and succeeds in throwing up the pills she took earlier that night. This moment has a mixed tone, as it celebrates the fact that Nora has chosen to stay in her life but points out the slight comedy of her triumph coming in the form of "vomiting all over her duvet." The final line suggests the remaining precariousness of her situation, as she is still just barely alive after ingesting this overdose of medication.
"And Nora smiled as she stared at all the pieces she still had left in play, thinking about her next move."
This is the last line of the novel. It concludes on an optimistic note, showing Nora as she is about to play a move in a game of chess with the real Mrs. Elm at a retirement home. The sense of possibility she feels as she considers where to move the piece on the board suggests that the same sense of possibility exists in her life. It reveals how exploring these unlived lives has opened her up to the idea that she can make a change in her daily life.
