September 13, 2026 Post by : Editorial Contemporary Fiction

Between life and death, Matt Haig gives us a library. Not a metaphorical one, exactly, but a real space with real shelves, staffed by a woman named Mrs Elm who once taught the protagonist, Nora Seed, in school. Nora has decided to die. The library offers her a chance to try the lives she might have lived if she had made different choices. Each book is a door. Each door is a life. Some are wonderful. Some are worse. None are quite hers.

The premise could easily become gimmicky, and Haig knows it. He keeps the chapters short, the prose clear, and the philosophy gentle. The book is not trying to outsmart you. It is trying to sit with you.

Why Chamomile and Lavender

Chamomile is the obvious tea for a novel about insomnia, regret, and the small hours. Lavender is the less obvious addition, and it matters. Lavender is a scent people associate with calm, but it is also slightly strange, slightly medicinal, slightly sad. It does not erase distress; it settles next to it. That is what Haig's novel does with Nora's despair. It does not pretend it away. It gives it a chair and lets it talk.

Use one teaspoon of dried chamomile flowers and a small pinch of culinary lavender per cup. Steep for four minutes. If you use lavender from a garden rather than a kitchen, use half the amount; ornamental varieties can be overpowering. A little honey is fine. Do not add milk.

The drink is pale gold, which suits the book's mood. Nora's lives are not Technicolor. They are muted, ordinary, and occasionally lovely, and the novel's argument is that the ordinary is enough.

Reading It When You Are Actually Sad

I would not recommend this book to someone in acute crisis, not because it handles the subject badly but because it is not a substitute for help. Haig has spoken publicly about his own depression, and the novel is sincere, but sincerity is not treatment. If you are reading it as a way through something, pair it with a phone call to someone who knows you, not just a mug.

For everyone else, this is a good book for a rainy evening, a long bath, or a night when sleep is not coming. Read it slowly. Let the tea go cold if you need to. The library will wait.

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