The Midnight Train – Matt Haig

Shortly after his death, Wilbur Budd is visited by the Midnight Train, taking him on a journey back through his life and giving him the opportunity to relive the best and worst times of his life on his way to the afterlife.  Seeing an opportunity to risk his ever-after by fixing the mistakes of his past, Wilbur decides to throw caution to the wind, bringing his dreaming self from his long-ago honeymoon along for the end of the ride to see how they squandered the love of their lifetime for material goods.

While not a direct sequel, Matt Haig’s latest, The Midnight Train, shares some themes and characters with The Midnight Library, his award-winning book from 2020.  It takes some familiar concepts, like your life flashing before your eyes as you shuffle off this mortal coil, and mixes them up with a risky way to try and update the past.  Regret over the various roads not taken is a common theme in Haig’s work, at least the ones I’ve read, and this is no different.