Matt Haig's The Midnight Library is a meditation on the unlived life — the version of yourself that didn't happen because of a choice you made or didn't make. If it moved you, and you want to stay in that philosophical space where depression and possibility intersect, these are the books that continue the conversation.
Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
Atkinson's experimental novel follows Ursula Todd as she is born again and again, each iteration of her life slightly different based on choices made or not made. The structure is more formally ambitious than The Midnight Library — you're living the same childhood from multiple angles — but the emotional through-line is the same: what would it take to finally get life right? Atkinson's prose is exceptional and the novel rewards rereading in a way that most literary fiction doesn't. A quieter, more literary choice for readers who loved Haig's concept but wanted a less sentimental execution.
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The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab
Schwab's novel is about a woman who makes a Faustian bargain for immortality and autonomy in 18th-century France — and then spends the next three centuries watching everyone forget her. The central question is similar to Haig's: what does it cost to live a life shaped by someone else's choices? Addie's bargain is darker and more explicit, and the novel's structure (past and present alternating across centuries) makes it an excellent companion piece.
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Dark Matter by Blake Crouch
Crouch takes the "quantum version of yourself" premise and turns it into a white-knuckle thriller. His protagonist is a family man placed in a "quantum version of himself" and forced to navigate parallel versions of his life to get back to the one he loves. Where Haig is warm and philosophical, Crouch is propulsive and physics-driven. But the core question — is there a version of your life where things worked out? — is identical.
A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman
Backman's novel shares The Midnight Library's belief that ordinary life contains hidden depths of meaning. Ove is a curmudgeonly Swedish widower who has decided to end his life — and keeps being pulled back into connection by the people around him. It's warmer and more comic than Haig's book, but it asks the same underlying question: what makes any particular life worth living? Particularly good for readers who found The Midnight Library's philosophical passages more compelling than the science fiction elements.
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The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin
A bookshop owner on a small island who has withdrawn from life after personal tragedy, a manuscript left for him by a publisher, and an unlikely family: Zevin's novel is a love letter to books and the communities they create. It shares The Midnight Library's conviction that literature can save you — and that the unlived life is less interesting than the one you're actually living. Warm, funny, and quietly wise.
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The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune
Klune's novel about a caseworker sent to evaluate an orphanage for magical children is a deliberate antidote to misanthropy. It shares The Midnight Library's belief that choosing to engage with the world — despite its obvious flaws — is an act of courage. The fantasy framing is lighter and more overtly hopeful, but the underlying message is similar: the life you're living might be more extraordinary than you think.
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Reasons to Stay Alive by Matt Haig
The author's own memoir about his battle with depression — the book that preceded The Midnight Library and directly informs it. If The Midnight Library was Haig processing his experience fictionally, Reasons to Stay Alive is the raw material. Reading it alongside his novel gives you the full picture of how Haig moved from despair to hope, and why he believes ordinary life is worth choosing.
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Key Takeaway
If you want more from Haig, read Reasons to Stay Alive — his memoir that directly preceded The Midnight Library. If you want the "different life, same person" concept with more literary ambition, read Life After Life. If you want to stay in the warm, hopeful, slightly fantastical space of The Midnight Library without leaving it, read The House in the Cerulean Sea or The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry.