Matt Haig

writer
Novel

How to Stop Time

As a 400-something-year-old member of the Albatross Society, Tom Hazard ages less than a month for each year of life. But now, after falling in the 21st-century and butting heads with the Society, he seems to be on a mental trip that covers his entire life (but not an actual time traveling trip). —Michael Main
But as time goes by, at birthdays or other annual markers, people begin to notice you aren’t getting any older.
A silhouette dog and man sit on a sandy beach inside an hourglass, withg a giant rose growing up through the hourglass like a beanstalk.
  • Fantasy
  • No Time Phenomena
Novel

The Midnight Library

  • by Matt Haig
  • (Canongate Books, August 2020)
After thirty-something Nora Seed kills herself, she arrives as a possibly metaphorical library with an infinite number of books containing her possible lives, each one of which she may try out, always starting on the night of her suicide.

For me, the depiction of Nora’s suicidal ideation and eventual killing of herself were dismissive of those who face depression every day, and the outcome was fictionally romanticized in a way that may induce suicide rather than showing understanding and encouragement to seek out help when life is dark. I don’t see this as intentional by the author. —Michael Main
“Every life contains many millions of decisions. Some big, some small. But every time one decision is taken over another, the outcomes differ. An irreversible variation occurs, which in turn leads to further variations. These books are portals to all the lives you could be living.”
A stylized, four-story, white library with a silhouette of a cat and text to the side stating, "One library. Infinite lives."
  • Fantasy
  • Debatable Time Travel