Chapters 65–72 Summary and Analysis
Nowhere to Land
An upset Nora finds herself back in the Midnight Library. The lights are flickering again, and Mrs. Elm—not the real Mrs. Elm, Nora knows now—is trying to fix something on the computer. Nora demands to know why she couldn’t stay in the life with Ash. Mrs. Elm had promised, after all, that she could stay if she found the right one. Mrs. Elm tells Nora that they appear to have another technical problem. In her root life, Nora is dying. There was always a chance of this, she reiterates.
Before long, the ceiling starts to cave in. Mrs. Elm tells Nora to look at her watch. It is about to advance past midnight, which means Nora’s time in the Midnight Library has nearly come to an end. Nora tells Mrs. Elm once more that she doesn’t want to die, and the librarian comes up with an escape plan. You need to write your own book now, she explains, giving her a pen.
Don’t You Dare Give Up, Nora Seed!
Nora walks through the rapidly deteriorating library and is pinned to the ground by a falling piece of debris. Galvanized by the obstacle, Nora is more certain than ever that she wants to live. It’s okay if life isn’t ideal, she realizes, because there are always more options. She is capable of so much more than the stagnation that has come to define her root life.
Mora manages to extricate herself from the wreckage and eventually finds what she is looking for: a blank book. She begins to write about her will to live in the third person, hoping that something will transport her back to her root life. “I AM ALIVE,” she finally writes as the library dissolves around her.
Awakening
Nora wakes up in her own life and promptly vomits on her duvet. She drags herself towards the phone and tries to call for help, but she drops it before she can dial. Staggering toward Mr. Banerjee’s house, she manages to ring his doorbell. He answers, and she asks him to call an ambulance and collapses on his doormat.
The Other Side of Despair
Nora is admitted to the hospital and begins to recover quickly. She tells the nurse about all the factors that contributed to her suicide attempt but also tells her that she doesn’t want to die anymore. Then she deletes the social media posts she made prior to her attempt and writes something new: “A Thing I Have Learned (Written By A Nobody Who Has Been Everybody.”
A Thing I Have Learned (Written By A Nobody Who Has Been Everybody)
In her replacement Facebook update, Nora muses on the nature of personal choice, regret, and the human condition. Regret itself, not missed opportunity, is the real tragedy, she contends, reminding her friends that living itself is the number one goal.
Living Versus Understanding
Alarmed by her final voicemail, Joe arrives from London to check on Nora. The two have a conversation about the deficiencies in their relationship, and he tells her that he hasn’t been distant because of her—it’s because he has been self-conscious about the drinking problem for which he is now seeking help. The two commit to rebuilding their relationship.
Soon, Nora gets a text from Izzy. She is sorry she didn’t get back to her last night, and she explains that she wanted a proper conversation and didn’t have a chance to start one at the time. She is also thinking about moving home, she tells Nora, and she can’t wait to see her.
Joe tells Nora he met...
(This entire section contains 1080 words.)
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a cute guy named Ewan at the gym. “Ask him out,” Nora insists, “you have to trust me.”
The Volcano
With a refreshed perspective, Nora feels grateful to be waking up in her old life. For the first time, she realizes, she feels empowered to explore her own goals and not the goals of the people around her. As she is contemplating this shift, she gets a surprise call from Doreen, Leo’s mother, who asks to reinstate his piano lessons.
Nora thinks about volcanoes and how they create destruction and life at the same time. Lava is capable of destroying what it touches, but it also creates rich, fertile soil that creates abundant future life. Nora compares herself to a volcano in that her destructive tendencies can now give way to creative ones.
How It Ends
Chessboard in hand, Nora visits Oak Leaf Care Home. In this life, Mrs. Elm is still alive and is glad to see a familiar face. Nora promises to return for regular games. The two discuss chess and life, and it doesn’t take long for the skilled Mrs. Elm to get the advantage. Nora observes that the librarian is going to win, but Mrs. Elm deflects, remarking, “You just never know how it ends.”
Analysis
As Nora recovers from her suicide attempt, she finds herself reframing her perspective on what it means to live a good life. It is only by experiencing so many different iterations of her life that she is able to finally see that a good life is defined by much more than the choices one makes. With the weight of her regrets lifted, Nora is able to take steps toward an eventual recovery.
Her plans for the future are left ambiguous, but the very fact that she is contemplating plans at all is a substantive change. Previously, Nora had primarily allowed herself to fall back on inaction. By the time the final chapter closes, Nora is proactively considering several things—planting foxgloves for Mr. Banerjee, asking Ash out for coffee, and considering applying to go back to school.
Though the Mrs. Elm that Nora visits at the care home is distinct from the librarian in her imagination, the interaction at the care home nods to Mrs. Elm’s important role in Nora’s ordeal. The two play chess and discuss the meaning of life in chess metaphors much the way Mrs. Elm of the Midnight Library did. The two have a mutual need for each other: neither of them has anyone to play chess with, and so they agree to be each other’s regular opponent. Nora needed Mrs. Elm for guidance in the library, just as Mrs. Elm—the imagined Mrs. Elm—needed Nora’s subconscious to construct her in order to exist.
