The Midnight Train by Matt Haig
If you could board a train that stopped at every pivotal moment of your life, would you get on?
That's the question at the heart of Matt Haig's latest novel, The Midnight Train. Returning to the world of his beloved bestseller The Midnight Library, Haig follows Wilbur, a 29-year-old bookstore owner from Sheffield, from the happiest day of his life to his final days. The novel opens in Venice in 1974, where Wilbur is honeymooning with the love of his life, Maggie, before jumping ahead more than five decades to the moment when Wilbur's life is drawing to a close.
Yet death is not Wilbur's final destination. Instead, he finds himself at a mysterious station, where a woman from his childhood invites him aboard the Midnight Train, a life-sized replica of a train he owned as a child. As the train carries him back through the defining moments of his life, Wilbur is given one final opportunity to see the truest version of himself. In revisiting the events that have shaped him, the hope is that he can make sense of the choices he made, the person he became, and the life he ultimately lived.
Matt Haig has a knack for making readers reflect on their own lives, and The Midnight Train may be his most introspective novel yet. One of Haig’s greatest strengths is his ability to reach into the deepest corners of the human experience and connect emotionally with readers. Throughout this novel, he explores universal feelings of regret, love, loss, and hope in a way that prompted me to reflect on my own life. There were moments while reading this when the hair on my arms stood up.
One of the themes that resonated most with me is the idea that the moments we think are small often become the most important. Seemingly insignificant conversations, decisions, and encounters that set our lives on entirely different paths. The Midnight Train illustrates the significance those moments carry, even when we fail to recognize it at the time.
The novel also prompts reflections on work, purpose, and how we spend our years. As Wilbur revisits his life, he comes to realize how much of himself he invested in his career, to the detriment of everything else. At one point, Haig writes that work gave him meaning and that he loved it, but it was also “a way to live without living.” It’s a powerful observation, and one that stayed with me long after I closed the book.
The Midnight Train blends philosophical questions with a wonderfully engaging narrative. Perfect for fans of Oona Out of Order and In Five Years, it’s a poignant and thought-provoking exploration of love, regret, self-discovery, and the possibility of second chances.
The Midnight Train by Matt Haig is available for purchase in hardcover, e-Book and audiobook formats. Check Bookshop.org to support an indie bookseller near you.
