Summary
Next, Nora travels to a life in which she kept her cat, Voltaire, inside, as she believes that it would have kept him from dying. She looked around her apartment, expecting to find her cat still alive. However, she finds her cat underneath her bed, unresponsive and dead. She returns to the library, distraught that her cat was not alive in that life.
She blames Mrs. Elm for misleading her about what that life would entail. Mrs. Elm responds by clarifying that in that life she merely said she had kept her cat inside. She says that her cat had a severe medical condition and that it didn't die because it was hit by a car; it died from a heart problem. She says that keeping him outside actually extended his lifespan much longer than in many of his parallel lives. Nora is upset about this, but Mrs. Elm says this knowledge has allowed her to let go of her regret about this subject and not see herself as a bad cat owner.
She travels to another life and finds herself living in Australia. She comes inside from a swim and receives a text message from Dan, who in this life is still her ex. She goes home and has a feeling that something is wrong. She reads a news article and finds out that her friend Izzy died in a car accident, and is overcome with grief. She departs that life feeling once again that she cannot find a happy life. Mrs. Elm reminds her that she cannot control the outcomes of these decisions.
She travels to another life in which she is a famous Olympic swimmer. In this life, she has won multiple competitions and is currently a public speaker. She is close with her brother and her father is still alive, but her mother is dead. She finds out that her mother became an alcoholic after Nora's father left her for the mother of a Ukrainian swimmer. She also finds out that she has had serious struggles with her mental health in the past.
She talks with her brother before delivering a speech in a hotel conference room. She learns that he has a happy relationship with his husband and also that he caught up with one of their old bandmates. She gets up to speak to the crowd and begins to talk about the idea of success. She compares life to a tree in which decisions lead to a gradual development of branches, indicating the various divergences it takes as a result of these choices.
She says that the idea of success is constructed, adding that in her life as an Olympic gold medalist she appears objectively successful, but she still has struggles in her life. The audience grows increasingly uncomfortable and her brother silently indicates that she should end her speech. She ends by encouraging people just to be kind. She begins to fade away after realizing that this is not the life for her.
She gets back to the library and finds that there is a system error occurring. Mrs. Elm tells her that the library's stability hinges on Nora still being alive and that if she dies, the structure will collapse. Nora reflects on what might make her happy and decides to see what her life as a glaciologist would have been.
Analysis
This section of the book also deals with control and outcomes. When Nora asks to see the life in which she kept her cat inside, she discovers that her cat has still died. Shocked, she asks Mrs. Elm how this could be possible and Mrs. Elm tells her that her cat actually had a heart condition, which is what killed him, not being struck by a car as she had initially assumed. In this moment, she discovers that while she can alter various decisions she has made, she has no control over the outcomes that they result in. This allows her to let go of some of her guilt about mishandling various decisions, as she realizes that her choices do not have guaranteed results. In the case of her cat, she realizes she was not a bad owner, and that in many other timelines, she actually extended her cat's life by letting him be outside.
Success is another key theme in these chapters. During her speech in the conference room, Nora reflects on how relative the idea of success is. She notes that while she has an outward appearance of being very accomplished, she still has struggles and disappointments in her life. She says that the idea of success is largely constructed, as it is difficult to know what a life actually feels like for the person living it. In this way, the book explores how widely-admired achievements don't necessarily make for a happy or fulfilling life.
This part of the novel also deals with the theme of loneliness. In one of her other lives, Nora moves to Australia to be closer to her friend Izzy. However, she finds out that her friend has died recently in a car accident. She is devastated by the loss and deeply upset by the fact that this decision did not bring them closer. She is also surprised to learn that, in that version of her life, she chose to remain there even after the accident. She feels the loss of Izzy even more acutely because she feels as though there is no life where they get to be together again.
Loneliness also appears in the chapter dealing with her life as an Olympic swimmer. In that timeline, she finds that she is much closer to her brother, despite the fact that the rest of her life is largely unrecognizable. She is emotional about the connection between them and feels happy to see what it would be like to be close to her brother again and see him happy. It comes as a surprise to her because this was not the happy outcome she envisioned when thinking about this life. This sense of renewed connection underscores how much she misses her brother and wishes that they could reconcile in her actual life.
In this part of the book, Nora keeps discovering that no single choice she alters can make her life perfect. Her decisions have unpredictable outcomes. In a life where she moves closer to her best friend, her best friend ends up dying in a car accident. In a life where she is an Olympic gold medalist, she is close to her brother, but her mother is dead. She keeps returning to the fact that regardless of how significantly different these lives are, she cannot find real comfort.
