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The Midnight World #2
De middernachttrein
Wilbur beleefde zijn mooiste momenten samen met Maggie, de liefde van zijn leven, op huwelijksreis in Venetië. Maar toen... raakte hij het allemaal kwijt.
Jaren later arriveert er een trein die hem terug kan brengen in de tijd. Wilbur beleeft zijn belangrijkste momenten opnieuw en beseft al snel dat hij dingen anders gedaan zou hebben. Hij wil niets liever dan de tijd terugdraaien, ook al zou dat alles in gevaar brengen.
Een verhaal over liefde en tweede kansen, uit de wereld van de Middernachtbibliotheek.
Jaren later arriveert er een trein die hem terug kan brengen in de tijd. Wilbur beleeft zijn belangrijkste momenten opnieuw en beseft al snel dat hij dingen anders gedaan zou hebben. Hij wil niets liever dan de tijd terugdraaien, ook al zou dat alles in gevaar brengen.
Een verhaal over liefde en tweede kansen, uit de wereld van de Middernachtbibliotheek.
333 pages, Paperback
First published May 26, 2026
About the author
Matt Haig
82 books52.6k followersMatt Haig is the author of novels such as The Midnight Library, How to Stop Time, The Humans, The Life Impossible and now The Midnight Train. He has also written books for children, such as A Boy Called Christmas, the memoir Reasons to Stay Alive and also The Comfort Book.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 8,151 reviews
August 11, 2026
In the simplest words from my romantic heart: I truly, deeply adored this book.
Even though you can sense where the story is heading, the beauty lies in its simplicity and sincerity. The writing doesn’t try to be clever or complicated—it’s genuine, and that’s exactly what makes it so powerful. Many of the emotional moments resonated with me in a way that felt almost personal, and because of that, I loved this story even more.
This novel is both sensational and quietly inspirational. It gently reminds us of life lessons we already know, but too often forget to actually live by: to slow down, to be present, to forgive, to let go. Life is not a marathon—it is a collection of moments, and sometimes we rush past the very ones that matter the most. Letting go isn’t something any of us ever fully masters, because we’re human. We make mistakes, we hurt each other, and we choose wrong when choosing right would have been harder. Pain is part of loving, and this book understands that deeply.
Maybe if I had read this story twenty years ago, Wilbur Budd’s journey wouldn’t have touched me so strongly. But as we grow older, the truths in this novel feel sharper and more real. We start thinking about time, about regret, about what we would change if we were given another chance. And we also start wondering about death—what comes after, if anything. Is it darkness? Heaven? Another beginning? A second life in another body? This book dares to explore those questions in the most tender and imaginative way.
Wilbur Budd is a wealthy bookstore owner who dies alone in his house, just after losing the love of his life once again. He reads Maggie’s farewell letter, collapses, and suffers a fatal heart attack. It feels final. Devastating. But that’s not where his story ends.
Wilbur becomes a ghost and boards the mysterious Midnight Train, guided by the unforgettable Agnes Deborah Amaryllis Bagsdale—the eccentric, magical owner of the bookshop where Wilbur first fell in love with reading as a child. She was the kind of woman who could place the perfect book into your hands and somehow know exactly what your soul needed. Years later, Wilbur would work in that very same shop and eventually inherit it, carrying on her legacy.
Now, Agnes becomes his guide through eternity, taking him through the most important moments of his life. We witness the tragedies that shaped him, the losses that broke him, and the love that defined him. One of the most beautiful memories is his honeymoon in Venice with Maggie—wandering through the labyrinth of narrow streets, lost together, discovering what happiness truly feels like.
But Wilbur is heartbroken even in death. And a question begins to haunt him: what if he could go back? What if time isn’t as fixed as we think? What if, by risking eternity itself, he could correct his mistakes and save the love he lost? His old friend Charlie believed that time is relative—that the past might still be part of the future. But interfering with time comes with a terrifying cost. Could Wilbur change his fate without erasing himself?
This story is romantic in the purest sense of the word. To me, it is much more a love story than a fantasy—an emotional, inspirational, beautifully tender drama about regret, devotion, and second chances. I loved its simplicity and its directness. It warmed my heart from the very first page to the last, and it earned every one of its five stars.
It was also one of my fastest, most absorbing reads—easy to fall into, impossible not to feel.
Highly recommended. 💫
A million thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Viking for sharing one of the most anticipated books of 2026 with me in exchange for my honest thoughts, which I truly and sincerely appreciate.
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Even though you can sense where the story is heading, the beauty lies in its simplicity and sincerity. The writing doesn’t try to be clever or complicated—it’s genuine, and that’s exactly what makes it so powerful. Many of the emotional moments resonated with me in a way that felt almost personal, and because of that, I loved this story even more.
This novel is both sensational and quietly inspirational. It gently reminds us of life lessons we already know, but too often forget to actually live by: to slow down, to be present, to forgive, to let go. Life is not a marathon—it is a collection of moments, and sometimes we rush past the very ones that matter the most. Letting go isn’t something any of us ever fully masters, because we’re human. We make mistakes, we hurt each other, and we choose wrong when choosing right would have been harder. Pain is part of loving, and this book understands that deeply.
Maybe if I had read this story twenty years ago, Wilbur Budd’s journey wouldn’t have touched me so strongly. But as we grow older, the truths in this novel feel sharper and more real. We start thinking about time, about regret, about what we would change if we were given another chance. And we also start wondering about death—what comes after, if anything. Is it darkness? Heaven? Another beginning? A second life in another body? This book dares to explore those questions in the most tender and imaginative way.
Wilbur Budd is a wealthy bookstore owner who dies alone in his house, just after losing the love of his life once again. He reads Maggie’s farewell letter, collapses, and suffers a fatal heart attack. It feels final. Devastating. But that’s not where his story ends.
Wilbur becomes a ghost and boards the mysterious Midnight Train, guided by the unforgettable Agnes Deborah Amaryllis Bagsdale—the eccentric, magical owner of the bookshop where Wilbur first fell in love with reading as a child. She was the kind of woman who could place the perfect book into your hands and somehow know exactly what your soul needed. Years later, Wilbur would work in that very same shop and eventually inherit it, carrying on her legacy.
Now, Agnes becomes his guide through eternity, taking him through the most important moments of his life. We witness the tragedies that shaped him, the losses that broke him, and the love that defined him. One of the most beautiful memories is his honeymoon in Venice with Maggie—wandering through the labyrinth of narrow streets, lost together, discovering what happiness truly feels like.
But Wilbur is heartbroken even in death. And a question begins to haunt him: what if he could go back? What if time isn’t as fixed as we think? What if, by risking eternity itself, he could correct his mistakes and save the love he lost? His old friend Charlie believed that time is relative—that the past might still be part of the future. But interfering with time comes with a terrifying cost. Could Wilbur change his fate without erasing himself?
This story is romantic in the purest sense of the word. To me, it is much more a love story than a fantasy—an emotional, inspirational, beautifully tender drama about regret, devotion, and second chances. I loved its simplicity and its directness. It warmed my heart from the very first page to the last, and it earned every one of its five stars.
It was also one of my fastest, most absorbing reads—easy to fall into, impossible not to feel.
Highly recommended. 💫
A million thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Viking for sharing one of the most anticipated books of 2026 with me in exchange for my honest thoughts, which I truly and sincerely appreciate.
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June 1, 2026
I’m really sad. Where's the magic? This was grossly underwhelming and nowhere near as emotionally engaging as I thought it would be.
I’ve always believed that some books find you exactly when you need them most, and that was the case with The Midnight Library. That book changed my life. I read it during a very uncertain and emotionally difficult period, and it felt like food for my soul. It helped me see life differently, and I’ll always be grateful not only that it exists, but that it found me when it did.
Sadly, I can’t say the same for this book.
The level of disconnect I felt from this story is unreal, and it kills me because this is the kind of story I usually enjoy. I was looking forward to it with what I can only describe as feverish delight? Desperate anticipation? I don’t even know.
The book makes reference to Ebenezer Scrooge and I was constantly reminded of A Christmas Carol while reading because they share a similar premise: a man revisiting moments from his life and being forced to confront himself and his choices.
What made A Christmas Carol work so well for me is that I immediately understood the urgency behind Scrooge’s journey. Before we’re shown his past we’re given the chance to know and feel something for his character. Whether it’s disgust, pity, sympathy or empathy. He makes you feel something. He’s despicable and mean, and some might even argue that he’s beyond redemption. So you’d ask yourself why a man like this even deserves a second chance. And maybe he doesn’t. The point is there’s a clear emotional and moral problem driving the narrative forward. And the story gives you a chance to not only root for him, but also learn from him by the time we reach the end of his journey.
That kind of emotional complexity is what I was looking for and what this story is missing for me.
81 year old Wilbur’s story begins with him dying and becoming trapped in a kind of purgatory that exists between death and eternity. He has to board the Midnight Train, which carries him through scenes from his life. He can get off and linger in certain memories, while others pass by in a blur, kind of like landscapes rushing past a train window. I really adore this concept. In many ways, The Midnight Train is meant to represent the idea of your life flashing before your eyes in the moments before you die. Was it a good life? Was it worth it in the end? Which memories stay with you? Which regrets haunt you still? And when you look back on it all, can you find it? The moment it all went wrong?
One of my issues with the way the story pans out is that we never really get to know Wilbur or his love interest, Maggie at the start of the story, and of course, that’s something the novel could’ve resolved over the course of its 300 pages. But for me, it never did because the characterisation felt flat. Both Maggie and Wilbur lack depth, and Maggie in particular was really underdeveloped. So by the time we start jumping in and out of scenes from Wilbur’s life, I was still struggling to find a reason to care about his plight. And that’s not to say he didn’t suffer or that he never made mistakes worth regretting. I simply never felt the urgency of his situation. And for me, a story like this needs all the emotional urgency it can fit between its pages.
Maggie and Wilbur’s relationship was clearly meant to be the emotional core of the story, the central thing the narrative was trying to heal, revisit, and resolve. But I couldn’t connect to either of them as characters, and because of that, I couldn’t connect to their relationship either. Naturally, that meant I never rooted for them. Frankly, at first Wilbur just seemed like a greedy punk who wanted to eat his cake and have it. A part of me kept thinking: everyone has it hard, Wilbur, so why exactly should I care about you getting a do-over? Why should I care about this one story? And I want to care enough to get to the point where I’m asking the hard questions.
Another thing I didn't enjoy is the writing style. I really can’t place my finger on why it didn’t work for me. The dialogues didn’t help either, and the narrative felt weirdly fragmented. Maybe that’s intentional because we’re rapidly moving through different periods of Wilbur’s life, jumping from memory to memory the same way thoughts flash through someone’s mind. I really don’t know.
The ending was also pretty predictable, though I usually don’t really mind predictability as long as I’m emotionally engaged and satisfied by the end. Which was not the case here.
But then I'd be lying if I said it was all bad. The book is still very faithful to the blueprint established by The Midnight Library in the sense that it celebrates life, human connection, and second chances. I gave it 3 stars because in spite of all my gripes with it, in the end it did make me ponder a bit over what it means to live and what moments make one’s existence meaningful.
Also, love the cover to bits.
I’ve always believed that some books find you exactly when you need them most, and that was the case with The Midnight Library. That book changed my life. I read it during a very uncertain and emotionally difficult period, and it felt like food for my soul. It helped me see life differently, and I’ll always be grateful not only that it exists, but that it found me when it did.
Sadly, I can’t say the same for this book.
The level of disconnect I felt from this story is unreal, and it kills me because this is the kind of story I usually enjoy. I was looking forward to it with what I can only describe as feverish delight? Desperate anticipation? I don’t even know.
The book makes reference to Ebenezer Scrooge and I was constantly reminded of A Christmas Carol while reading because they share a similar premise: a man revisiting moments from his life and being forced to confront himself and his choices.
What made A Christmas Carol work so well for me is that I immediately understood the urgency behind Scrooge’s journey. Before we’re shown his past we’re given the chance to know and feel something for his character. Whether it’s disgust, pity, sympathy or empathy. He makes you feel something. He’s despicable and mean, and some might even argue that he’s beyond redemption. So you’d ask yourself why a man like this even deserves a second chance. And maybe he doesn’t. The point is there’s a clear emotional and moral problem driving the narrative forward. And the story gives you a chance to not only root for him, but also learn from him by the time we reach the end of his journey.
That kind of emotional complexity is what I was looking for and what this story is missing for me.
81 year old Wilbur’s story begins with him dying and becoming trapped in a kind of purgatory that exists between death and eternity. He has to board the Midnight Train, which carries him through scenes from his life. He can get off and linger in certain memories, while others pass by in a blur, kind of like landscapes rushing past a train window. I really adore this concept. In many ways, The Midnight Train is meant to represent the idea of your life flashing before your eyes in the moments before you die. Was it a good life? Was it worth it in the end? Which memories stay with you? Which regrets haunt you still? And when you look back on it all, can you find it? The moment it all went wrong?
One of my issues with the way the story pans out is that we never really get to know Wilbur or his love interest, Maggie at the start of the story, and of course, that’s something the novel could’ve resolved over the course of its 300 pages. But for me, it never did because the characterisation felt flat. Both Maggie and Wilbur lack depth, and Maggie in particular was really underdeveloped. So by the time we start jumping in and out of scenes from Wilbur’s life, I was still struggling to find a reason to care about his plight. And that’s not to say he didn’t suffer or that he never made mistakes worth regretting. I simply never felt the urgency of his situation. And for me, a story like this needs all the emotional urgency it can fit between its pages.
Maggie and Wilbur’s relationship was clearly meant to be the emotional core of the story, the central thing the narrative was trying to heal, revisit, and resolve. But I couldn’t connect to either of them as characters, and because of that, I couldn’t connect to their relationship either. Naturally, that meant I never rooted for them. Frankly, at first Wilbur just seemed like a greedy punk who wanted to eat his cake and have it. A part of me kept thinking: everyone has it hard, Wilbur, so why exactly should I care about you getting a do-over? Why should I care about this one story? And I want to care enough to get to the point where I’m asking the hard questions.
Another thing I didn't enjoy is the writing style. I really can’t place my finger on why it didn’t work for me. The dialogues didn’t help either, and the narrative felt weirdly fragmented. Maybe that’s intentional because we’re rapidly moving through different periods of Wilbur’s life, jumping from memory to memory the same way thoughts flash through someone’s mind. I really don’t know.
The ending was also pretty predictable, though I usually don’t really mind predictability as long as I’m emotionally engaged and satisfied by the end. Which was not the case here.
But then I'd be lying if I said it was all bad. The book is still very faithful to the blueprint established by The Midnight Library in the sense that it celebrates life, human connection, and second chances. I gave it 3 stars because in spite of all my gripes with it, in the end it did make me ponder a bit over what it means to live and what moments make one’s existence meaningful.
Also, love the cover to bits.
May 26, 2026
My Reviews Can Also Be Found On:
The Book Review Crew Blog
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
The Midnight Train (The Midnight World #2)
Matt Haig
Publication Date: May 26th, 2026
HarperCollins Canada | HarperCollins Publishers
304 Pages
Amazon | Bookshop.org
Genre: General Fiction
The first book in the series is about what could have been; this second installment is about what was. What's best about Haig's Midnight World Series is the way he writes about the "what-ifs" of life.
This one is about Wilbur, who is an 81-year-old man who has died. Wilbur thinks the best days of his life were the ones spent with his (ex)wife, Maggie...especially their honeymoon in Venice. He is given the chance to live those moments over and maybe change his past. BUT nothing is ever free of consequence, and trying to rewrite history, even if it is your own, comes with a cost.
I love the way Haig writes about that "your life is flashing before your eyes" moment. Changing the library to a steam train is very nostalgic and reminded me of old noir films I watched with my grandma. (The railway metaphor was not lost on me.) We don't have a multiverse in this one; it's about one single, messy life.
Wilbur was a very relatable character. He was very flawed, and reading about him dealing with his younger self was so sad but very touching. I read one review that said this book is a balm for the soul, and it is so true. While it feels a bit familiar and sentimental, the message Haig is trying to put across is very heartwarming. Value your memories, even the hard ones, and don't focus too much on your regrets as long as you have a life that was well lived. I enjoyed this second book much more than the first, and I can't recommend it enough. All. The. Stars.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.
The Book Review Crew Blog
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
The Midnight Train (The Midnight World #2)
Matt Haig
Publication Date: May 26th, 2026
HarperCollins Canada | HarperCollins Publishers
304 Pages
Amazon | Bookshop.org
Genre: General Fiction
The first book in the series is about what could have been; this second installment is about what was. What's best about Haig's Midnight World Series is the way he writes about the "what-ifs" of life.
This one is about Wilbur, who is an 81-year-old man who has died. Wilbur thinks the best days of his life were the ones spent with his (ex)wife, Maggie...especially their honeymoon in Venice. He is given the chance to live those moments over and maybe change his past. BUT nothing is ever free of consequence, and trying to rewrite history, even if it is your own, comes with a cost.
I love the way Haig writes about that "your life is flashing before your eyes" moment. Changing the library to a steam train is very nostalgic and reminded me of old noir films I watched with my grandma. (The railway metaphor was not lost on me.) We don't have a multiverse in this one; it's about one single, messy life.
Wilbur was a very relatable character. He was very flawed, and reading about him dealing with his younger self was so sad but very touching. I read one review that said this book is a balm for the soul, and it is so true. While it feels a bit familiar and sentimental, the message Haig is trying to put across is very heartwarming. Value your memories, even the hard ones, and don't focus too much on your regrets as long as you have a life that was well lived. I enjoyed this second book much more than the first, and I can't recommend it enough. All. The. Stars.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.
June 11, 2026
“I don’t know where the past hides, but I will meet you there.”
Imagine this…
There is a train that can take you to your past. Knowing that the past has already happened, but that you can revisit it at the end of your life in search of understanding, forgiveness, or closure, would you board?
And if you did, and found yourself face to face with your younger self, would you be tempted to change something? To offer advice? A warning? A different path?
My Goodreads friend William de Rham described this book simply and perfectly:
“A very creative and interesting way to look at death, the afterlife, and what has come before.”
Maybe that is all this adventure is—a train ride wrapped in magical realism that gives its characters, and readers, an opportunity to pause and reflect on the lives they have lived.
But beneath the imaginative premise lies a deeper question. If you were given the chance to revisit your past, would you find peace with the choices you've made? Or would you discover that the life you longed for was waiting to be lived all along?
Thoughtful, poignant, and quietly contemplative, this novel is less about changing the past and more about understanding it. In the end, it asks us to consider not only how we will face death, but whether we are truly living our best life while we still have the chance.
Imagine this…
There is a train that can take you to your past. Knowing that the past has already happened, but that you can revisit it at the end of your life in search of understanding, forgiveness, or closure, would you board?
And if you did, and found yourself face to face with your younger self, would you be tempted to change something? To offer advice? A warning? A different path?
My Goodreads friend William de Rham described this book simply and perfectly:
“A very creative and interesting way to look at death, the afterlife, and what has come before.”
Maybe that is all this adventure is—a train ride wrapped in magical realism that gives its characters, and readers, an opportunity to pause and reflect on the lives they have lived.
But beneath the imaginative premise lies a deeper question. If you were given the chance to revisit your past, would you find peace with the choices you've made? Or would you discover that the life you longed for was waiting to be lived all along?
Thoughtful, poignant, and quietly contemplative, this novel is less about changing the past and more about understanding it. In the end, it asks us to consider not only how we will face death, but whether we are truly living our best life while we still have the chance.
August 10, 2026
This was essentially A Christmas Carol, but take out the Christmas and add a train.
It was very easy to read, introspective & gentle - and we essentially run through the significant moments of our protagonist's life, the good and bad. And we reflect on his highlights as well as regrets, and contemplate on things he would have done differently.
It's a book that encourages you to live fully and enjoy your life in the moment, and I loved what this story stood for - but unfortunately I just don't think it provided any new insights for me. I've been coincidentally reading a lot of books this month that reflect on life vs death... and compared to the other books I've read, The Midnight Train does really just skim the surface of this topic. Which really surprised me, because while I read The Midnight Library many years ago, I just remember feeling so affected and *changed* by that story - I thought I'd get a similar feeling from this one.
On top of that, there was a big focus on Wilbur's love life, and his regrets in terms of how his relationship unfolded. And unfortunately, I don't think we saw enough real intimate moments between Wilbur and Maggie to form a true connection with them - and I just didn't feel like I was rooting for them especially.
Overall, a simple and easy read. It isn't bad by any means, but definitely didn't have much of an impact on me, sadly!
It was very easy to read, introspective & gentle - and we essentially run through the significant moments of our protagonist's life, the good and bad. And we reflect on his highlights as well as regrets, and contemplate on things he would have done differently.
It's a book that encourages you to live fully and enjoy your life in the moment, and I loved what this story stood for - but unfortunately I just don't think it provided any new insights for me. I've been coincidentally reading a lot of books this month that reflect on life vs death... and compared to the other books I've read, The Midnight Train does really just skim the surface of this topic. Which really surprised me, because while I read The Midnight Library many years ago, I just remember feeling so affected and *changed* by that story - I thought I'd get a similar feeling from this one.
On top of that, there was a big focus on Wilbur's love life, and his regrets in terms of how his relationship unfolded. And unfortunately, I don't think we saw enough real intimate moments between Wilbur and Maggie to form a true connection with them - and I just didn't feel like I was rooting for them especially.
Overall, a simple and easy read. It isn't bad by any means, but definitely didn't have much of an impact on me, sadly!
June 8, 2026
DNF at 53 percent.
All aboard. Disembark. All aboard. Disembark. All aboard... Lather. Rinse. Repeat.
The Midnight Train to Nowhere. 🚂
June 11, 2026
“When your life flashes before your eyes, where would you stop?”
As someone who absolutely loved The Midnight Library, I went into The Midnight Train with very high expectations and somehow Matt Haig still managed to pull me aboard.
This is one of those books that feels deceptively simple at first. A train journey, a chance encounter, a hint of romance. But before long, it becomes something much bigger, a story about the roads we take, the ones we miss, and the people who leave unexpected fingerprints on our lives.
Matt Haig has a gift for taking huge existential questions and wrapping them in warm, accessible storytelling. Just like The Midnight Library, this novel explores regret, hope, connection, and the endless “what ifs” that follow us through life. The difference here is that the journey feels a little more intimate and romantic, while still carrying that signature Haig blend of heart and wonder.
What I loved most was how effortlessly readable it was. I kept telling myself “just one more chapter” and suddenly realised I was far deeper into the book than planned. The characters felt genuine, the emotional moments landed beautifully, and there were several passages that made me pause and reflect on my own life choices.
If you’re a fan of Matt Haig’s ability to balance optimism with melancholy, you’ll find a lot to love here. While The Midnight Library remains my personal favourite, The Midnight Train captures the same sense of possibility that made me fall in love with Haig’s writing in the first place.
I Highly Recommend.
Thank you Allen & Unwin for my advanced readers copy.
Available Now!
As someone who absolutely loved The Midnight Library, I went into The Midnight Train with very high expectations and somehow Matt Haig still managed to pull me aboard.
This is one of those books that feels deceptively simple at first. A train journey, a chance encounter, a hint of romance. But before long, it becomes something much bigger, a story about the roads we take, the ones we miss, and the people who leave unexpected fingerprints on our lives.
Matt Haig has a gift for taking huge existential questions and wrapping them in warm, accessible storytelling. Just like The Midnight Library, this novel explores regret, hope, connection, and the endless “what ifs” that follow us through life. The difference here is that the journey feels a little more intimate and romantic, while still carrying that signature Haig blend of heart and wonder.
What I loved most was how effortlessly readable it was. I kept telling myself “just one more chapter” and suddenly realised I was far deeper into the book than planned. The characters felt genuine, the emotional moments landed beautifully, and there were several passages that made me pause and reflect on my own life choices.
If you’re a fan of Matt Haig’s ability to balance optimism with melancholy, you’ll find a lot to love here. While The Midnight Library remains my personal favourite, The Midnight Train captures the same sense of possibility that made me fall in love with Haig’s writing in the first place.
I Highly Recommend.
Thank you Allen & Unwin for my advanced readers copy.
Available Now!
May 16, 2026
This felt like someone took A Christmas Carol, removed the ghosts, the urgency, and most of the personality, then stretched it across an emotionally delayed train schedule.
The premise sounded incredible: a magical midnight train that lets you revisit the moments that shaped your life? Amazing. Existential. Potentially devastating in the best way. Instead, I got a slow-moving ride through regret with all the excitement of waiting at the DMV.
Wilbur spends the book reflecting on his past, his marriage, and the choices he made, except the execution felt like being trapped in a very long therapy session I didn’t agree to pay for.
I kept waiting for some emotional gut punch or mind-bending revelation, but the story just kind of politely wandered around the tracks.
There were moments where Matt Haig’s signature warmth and introspection peeked through, and I can absolutely see this working for readers who love quiet, reflective stories. Unfortunately, I needed more plot and less “sad man thinks about things for 300 pages.”
And listen, I love an emotional story. I voluntarily read books designed to emotionally ruin me for fun. But this one somehow managed to be both sentimental and painfully dull at the same time. That’s honestly kind of impressive.
Also, if you mention Venice enough times, I start expecting something dramatic to happen. A scandal. A murder. Someone falling into a canal. Anything.
In the end, this wasn’t a terrible book. It just felt like a very long inspirational quote riding public transportation.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Viking for this review copy.
The premise sounded incredible: a magical midnight train that lets you revisit the moments that shaped your life? Amazing. Existential. Potentially devastating in the best way. Instead, I got a slow-moving ride through regret with all the excitement of waiting at the DMV.
Wilbur spends the book reflecting on his past, his marriage, and the choices he made, except the execution felt like being trapped in a very long therapy session I didn’t agree to pay for.
I kept waiting for some emotional gut punch or mind-bending revelation, but the story just kind of politely wandered around the tracks.
There were moments where Matt Haig’s signature warmth and introspection peeked through, and I can absolutely see this working for readers who love quiet, reflective stories. Unfortunately, I needed more plot and less “sad man thinks about things for 300 pages.”
And listen, I love an emotional story. I voluntarily read books designed to emotionally ruin me for fun. But this one somehow managed to be both sentimental and painfully dull at the same time. That’s honestly kind of impressive.
Also, if you mention Venice enough times, I start expecting something dramatic to happen. A scandal. A murder. Someone falling into a canal. Anything.
In the end, this wasn’t a terrible book. It just felt like a very long inspirational quote riding public transportation.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Viking for this review copy.
May 19, 2026
I wanted to love it, but sadly I never connected with the main character or the story. It didn’t feel as magical as maybe I had hoped. I do think it’s impossible for me to go into a book of Matt Haig’s with low expectations after loving The Midnight Library years ago.
February 9, 2026
⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
If you could ride a midnight train through your life, how many moments would be worth reliving? How many moments would be too painful to stop for? How many mistakes would you yearn to fix?
It’s an apt time for me to read this, as I reflect on my life and the fraught path I travel. I’d definitely skip over this part of my journey, starting straight forward, hoping against hope I’ll never have to look back.
A tender, heartwarming l novel, it reminds us that these individual moments we live all add up to a life. And in that life, we have regrets, we have things we take for granted, we have magical memories we wish to live in on a loop.
But we ultimately get none of that, and we have to come to terms with the elusiveness of joy to understand the importance of savoring it. I think we can all learn from Wilbur, and by realizing that we are dying in stages as we walk this earth, perhaps we can spend less time grieving the passing of your previous versions, and more time celebrating the current one.
Live life like today is the moment you’d return to if you could change only one day.
If you could ride a midnight train through your life, how many moments would be worth reliving? How many moments would be too painful to stop for? How many mistakes would you yearn to fix?
It’s an apt time for me to read this, as I reflect on my life and the fraught path I travel. I’d definitely skip over this part of my journey, starting straight forward, hoping against hope I’ll never have to look back.
A tender, heartwarming l novel, it reminds us that these individual moments we live all add up to a life. And in that life, we have regrets, we have things we take for granted, we have magical memories we wish to live in on a loop.
But we ultimately get none of that, and we have to come to terms with the elusiveness of joy to understand the importance of savoring it. I think we can all learn from Wilbur, and by realizing that we are dying in stages as we walk this earth, perhaps we can spend less time grieving the passing of your previous versions, and more time celebrating the current one.
Live life like today is the moment you’d return to if you could change only one day.
July 8, 2026
Wilbur Budd, an 81-year-old, passes away and finds himself on the midnight train. This ghostly train journey stops at the critical intersections of his life: decisions, detours, situations, death, and relationships. Wilbur gets to watch his younger self make good and bad decisions.
As I listened to the audiobook, The Midnight Train, I thought about the junctures in life I have experienced and how the decisions I made impacted the trajectory of my life. Wilbur's train journey focuses on his ambition to open up many bookstores and the impact it had on his marriage.
This book and a book I read earlier this week, The Bookshop of Yesterdays both mention Prospero, the magician in Shakespeare's play The Tempest. Serendipity!
I have really enjoyed other Matt Haig books. I rated The Life Impossible five stars. I gave four stars to The Midnight Library and A Boy Called Christmas.
I'm looking forward to reading many of his other books.
As I listened to the audiobook, The Midnight Train, I thought about the junctures in life I have experienced and how the decisions I made impacted the trajectory of my life. Wilbur's train journey focuses on his ambition to open up many bookstores and the impact it had on his marriage.
This book and a book I read earlier this week, The Bookshop of Yesterdays both mention Prospero, the magician in Shakespeare's play The Tempest. Serendipity!
I have really enjoyed other Matt Haig books. I rated The Life Impossible five stars. I gave four stars to The Midnight Library and A Boy Called Christmas.
I'm looking forward to reading many of his other books.
June 26, 2026
4★
"It was then that Wilbur heard the whisper. Something up close in his ear. Cold breath. 'You need to keep hold of this.' It caused Wilbur to brush his ear.
. . .
But as he kept walking down the ramp, he heard something else.
A faint whistle, a rhythmical chugging.
Almost like a train leaving a station."
The ninth of August 1974. Wilbur and Maggie Budd are honeymooning in Venice, over-the-moon happy, daydreaming and imagining moving there to open a little bookshop. Once we've enjoyed the brief introduction that is the honeymoon, the main story starts.
FIFTY-TWO YEARS LATER
Wilbur dies very early in the story, just after we learn he regrets he hasn't spoken to Maggie in decades, so we know there's a lot of catching up for us to do. What better way to time travel than by steam train?
After he dies, he finds himself at a train station named "Wilbur", where he boards what appears to be the real steam engine, 'The Duke of Gloucester', a model of which his big brother had stolen for him that was his favourite toy. But – no – it isn't the Duke. The nameplate says "THE MIDNIGHT TRAIN".
Wilbur, aka The Ghost, has a personal escort on this journey, determined to keep him on track so he doesn't go off the rails – to overwork the railroading cliches. Mrs. Agnes Bagdale was the kindly bookshop owner who welcomed his browsing (reading) in her shop when he as a poor lad, and now she's also a ghost.
She is nervously pedantic about the rules, because if you break them, it seems you won't have an eternity.
Whatever you do, don't attempt to make contact in the past, or something dire and unmentionable will happen and you'll disappear for ever. Agnes never suggests fire and brimstone, but we certainly get the same feeling we'd have had as kids when ordered "to do as you're told or else!"
(I say 'you', because I like to suspend disbelief and go along for the ride.)
It's not going to be a smooth trip. As they rumble along in the train (not on a track or rails, incidentally, just through the air), Wilbur sees scenes from his life out the window.
Wilbur's father died in the war, shot down in the plane he was piloting. Suddenly, there it is, outside in the sky.
"The plane exploded into the sky and disappeared. Wilbur searched for it but it was gone and he felt its absence like a grief reborn. He had imagined the event a thousand times over, had spent countless hours as a child staring up to the clouds and thinking about it, wondering what his father had thought in his final moments."
He closes his eyes. This level of reality is too much for him, just as it was for Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol.
"Agnes spoke to him. 'It's a lot to absorb, admittedly. I understand that. But you must look out of the window where possible. I don't mean to be pedantic, but the whole point of a life flashing before your eyes is that you see it.'
So Wilbur forced himself to look."
We revisit the past with him, seeing things revealed in scenes that he would not have known at the time. Once, while his mother is pushing him, as a baby in a pram, she grabs his older brother, Dougie, away from a fight, and lays into him.
"'If your dad was here he'd knock you into next week.'
'Dad's dead, Mam. Hitler got him.'
She clipped the back of Dougie's head. 'Stop that talk out in the street.'
'But he is.'
'I bloody know that, lad. Left us with nothing but another mouth to feed, didn't he.'
And she stared down at baby Wilbur, like he was another problem she could really do without. She'd found a way through her grief. And it was called resentment."
Wilbur watches himself survive a tragic accident and begins to understand how he has let grief and anger shape his life just as his mother had learned to use resentment to deal with hers.
Haig has a fine sense of balance (which more of us could use). He doesn't avoid sorrow or grief, but he shows how to make those memories a part of your life, not the focus.
At one stop, Wilbur's best pal speaks of a book he's read about an African tradition of time that I think is similar to that of Aboriginal and other First Nations groups. Time is not a fixed thing – everything is woven together. (Einstein is in good company.)
Haig gives us plenty to think about and likeable people to think about it with. I finished reading The Midnight Library with a sense of optimism, and although this is very different, I feel the same way after reading this.
Thanks to #NetGalley and A&U Canongate for a preview copy of #TheMidnightTrain for review.
P.S.
My review of The Midnight Library
"It was then that Wilbur heard the whisper. Something up close in his ear. Cold breath. 'You need to keep hold of this.' It caused Wilbur to brush his ear.
. . .
But as he kept walking down the ramp, he heard something else.
A faint whistle, a rhythmical chugging.
Almost like a train leaving a station."
The ninth of August 1974. Wilbur and Maggie Budd are honeymooning in Venice, over-the-moon happy, daydreaming and imagining moving there to open a little bookshop. Once we've enjoyed the brief introduction that is the honeymoon, the main story starts.
FIFTY-TWO YEARS LATER
Wilbur dies very early in the story, just after we learn he regrets he hasn't spoken to Maggie in decades, so we know there's a lot of catching up for us to do. What better way to time travel than by steam train?
After he dies, he finds himself at a train station named "Wilbur", where he boards what appears to be the real steam engine, 'The Duke of Gloucester', a model of which his big brother had stolen for him that was his favourite toy. But – no – it isn't the Duke. The nameplate says "THE MIDNIGHT TRAIN".
Wilbur, aka The Ghost, has a personal escort on this journey, determined to keep him on track so he doesn't go off the rails – to overwork the railroading cliches. Mrs. Agnes Bagdale was the kindly bookshop owner who welcomed his browsing (reading) in her shop when he as a poor lad, and now she's also a ghost.
She is nervously pedantic about the rules, because if you break them, it seems you won't have an eternity.
Whatever you do, don't attempt to make contact in the past, or something dire and unmentionable will happen and you'll disappear for ever. Agnes never suggests fire and brimstone, but we certainly get the same feeling we'd have had as kids when ordered "to do as you're told or else!"
(I say 'you', because I like to suspend disbelief and go along for the ride.)
It's not going to be a smooth trip. As they rumble along in the train (not on a track or rails, incidentally, just through the air), Wilbur sees scenes from his life out the window.
Wilbur's father died in the war, shot down in the plane he was piloting. Suddenly, there it is, outside in the sky.
"The plane exploded into the sky and disappeared. Wilbur searched for it but it was gone and he felt its absence like a grief reborn. He had imagined the event a thousand times over, had spent countless hours as a child staring up to the clouds and thinking about it, wondering what his father had thought in his final moments."
He closes his eyes. This level of reality is too much for him, just as it was for Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol.
"Agnes spoke to him. 'It's a lot to absorb, admittedly. I understand that. But you must look out of the window where possible. I don't mean to be pedantic, but the whole point of a life flashing before your eyes is that you see it.'
So Wilbur forced himself to look."
We revisit the past with him, seeing things revealed in scenes that he would not have known at the time. Once, while his mother is pushing him, as a baby in a pram, she grabs his older brother, Dougie, away from a fight, and lays into him.
"'If your dad was here he'd knock you into next week.'
'Dad's dead, Mam. Hitler got him.'
She clipped the back of Dougie's head. 'Stop that talk out in the street.'
'But he is.'
'I bloody know that, lad. Left us with nothing but another mouth to feed, didn't he.'
And she stared down at baby Wilbur, like he was another problem she could really do without. She'd found a way through her grief. And it was called resentment."
Wilbur watches himself survive a tragic accident and begins to understand how he has let grief and anger shape his life just as his mother had learned to use resentment to deal with hers.
Haig has a fine sense of balance (which more of us could use). He doesn't avoid sorrow or grief, but he shows how to make those memories a part of your life, not the focus.
At one stop, Wilbur's best pal speaks of a book he's read about an African tradition of time that I think is similar to that of Aboriginal and other First Nations groups. Time is not a fixed thing – everything is woven together. (Einstein is in good company.)
Haig gives us plenty to think about and likeable people to think about it with. I finished reading The Midnight Library with a sense of optimism, and although this is very different, I feel the same way after reading this.
Thanks to #NetGalley and A&U Canongate for a preview copy of #TheMidnightTrain for review.
P.S.
My review of The Midnight Library
July 29, 2026
I have mixed feelings about this book, I liked it but did not love it. The idea of travelling back through important moments in Wilbur's life was interesting, and I enjoyed the mix of real life with a little bit of magic and time travel. The story made me think about how our choices, regrets, and relationships can shape our lives. But I found it hard to connect with Wilbur, and some parts of the book felt slow. I also guessed where the story was going quite early, so it wasn't as exciting as I hoped.
Even though I enjoyed reading it, it didn't have the same impact on me as The Midnight Library. I preferred that book because I felt more connected to the characters and the story. The Midnight Train is still a good, emotional read with an important message about appreciating life, but it wasn't a favourite for me. I would still recommend it to Matt Haig fans or anyone who enjoys thoughtful stories with a touch of fantasy.
Even though I enjoyed reading it, it didn't have the same impact on me as The Midnight Library. I preferred that book because I felt more connected to the characters and the story. The Midnight Train is still a good, emotional read with an important message about appreciating life, but it wasn't a favourite for me. I would still recommend it to Matt Haig fans or anyone who enjoys thoughtful stories with a touch of fantasy.
Want to Read
October 17, 2025Matt Haig is one my all-time favorite authors.
I’m really looking forward to The Midnight Train being released and having the opportunity to read it.
Can’t wait!
I’m really looking forward to The Midnight Train being released and having the opportunity to read it.
Can’t wait!
July 29, 2026
What would it feel like to relive the moments that shaped your life after you’ve died?
Wilbur, an elderly bookseller, boards the mysterious Midnight Train after his death and revisits the memories that mattered most to him. The only catch? He can’t stay for long—when the train approaches, he must return.
A whimsical and heartwarming novel about love, memory, regret, and second chances , The Midnight Train reminds us that a life is defined not by grand achievements, but by the people we love and the moments we cherish. It quietly asks whether understanding the past can change the meaning of a life—and whether redemption is possible, even after death.
🚂😇
Wilbur, an elderly bookseller, boards the mysterious Midnight Train after his death and revisits the memories that mattered most to him. The only catch? He can’t stay for long—when the train approaches, he must return.
A whimsical and heartwarming novel about love, memory, regret, and second chances , The Midnight Train reminds us that a life is defined not by grand achievements, but by the people we love and the moments we cherish. It quietly asks whether understanding the past can change the meaning of a life—and whether redemption is possible, even after death.
🚂😇
June 30, 2026
3.75 Book #2 in The Midnight World series. This one gave off 'Ghosts of Christmas Past' vibes. While I really disliked Wilbur more and more as the story progressed (though I realize that was kind of the point) and felt the story dragged on a bit at times, I did enjoy how it all wrapped up. I'm still a huge fan of the author, but I definitely preferred The Midnight Library to this one!
May 29, 2026
4.25 stars maybe?? 🤷🏻♀️ Seems I've read several good new books about the human condition in the last few weeks, and this one wasn't quite the stand-out, which is a shame as it's a good magic-realism novel. That's not the author's fault, the publisher could have moved up or delayed the release to differentiate it. I also wish I remembered "Magic Library" better, but as the author says in his note, this is not a sequel but more the same universe. And I liked using the train as a metaphor & setting to travel through a life with stops to see important events - that part worked quite well. I also enjoyed all the book love on display here. Wilbur (the ghost & past both) got a bit tiresome at times and also the metaphysics were a bit heavy handed in places. But what remained to me was LOVE in all its forms - the romantic, filial, platonic, occupational - they ARE the meaning of it all.
June 6, 2026
I do like Matt haig, he has a way of making you think about deep issues. This one did that as well, although it didn’t quite opened up the floodgates like how to stop time did. But it was still interesting, and still lovely. But not earth-shattering (for me at least).
May 22, 2026
This is The Midnight Library’s poor cousin … who is dull .. and may as well not exist. I was so looking forward to this release. Gutted!
February 13, 2026
Incredibly corny and predictable. A few good lines and sentiments here and there but basically a more magical/modern version of A Christmas Carol. I read the Midnight Library years ago and gave it 5 stars but now I’m suspicious of my own review. All characters are completely one dimensional, I felt no emotional depth in this story. Sorry but Matt Haig should not be near any historical fiction.
Thanks NetGalley for the ARC
Thanks NetGalley for the ARC
July 27, 2026
This was a wonderful book about second chances, love, adventure, transformation and learning from mistakes. The Midnight Train follows Wilbur who is 81 and just passed away. A train picks him up and he goes back in time to relive his memories. During this journey he realizes what he wants to change especially staying with his wife forever.
Thoughts
I found myself transported into this time traveling book from the very beginning. The plot was interesting I was engaged throughout the book. The pacing was slow during some parts of the book and other parts the pacing was well done. The author discussed important life lessons that made me think such as living in the moment, don't let work stop you from spending time with the people you love, and fixing your mistakes. The second point resonated with me a great deal because family is the most important to me and I'm very grateful that I have such a wonderful family. I enjoyed the writing, it was descriptive, concise and easy to follow. I loved the sprinkle of time traveling into a realistic and thought provoking book. Wilbur was a well rounded and realistic character. He made mistakes, but he learned from them and developed as a character. Agnes was an interesting and smart character, but I would've liked to see more development of her character. I liked Maggie, she was caring, kind, resilient, and creative, but she didn't transform much throughout the book. There were many moments in this book that made me sad, happy, angry, and hopeful. The ending was heartwarming and I enjoyed the time for reflection on life's moments.
Thoughts
I found myself transported into this time traveling book from the very beginning. The plot was interesting I was engaged throughout the book. The pacing was slow during some parts of the book and other parts the pacing was well done. The author discussed important life lessons that made me think such as living in the moment, don't let work stop you from spending time with the people you love, and fixing your mistakes. The second point resonated with me a great deal because family is the most important to me and I'm very grateful that I have such a wonderful family. I enjoyed the writing, it was descriptive, concise and easy to follow. I loved the sprinkle of time traveling into a realistic and thought provoking book. Wilbur was a well rounded and realistic character. He made mistakes, but he learned from them and developed as a character. Agnes was an interesting and smart character, but I would've liked to see more development of her character. I liked Maggie, she was caring, kind, resilient, and creative, but she didn't transform much throughout the book. There were many moments in this book that made me sad, happy, angry, and hopeful. The ending was heartwarming and I enjoyed the time for reflection on life's moments.
May 31, 2026
I absolutely loved this cozy, life-affirming read!!!
I loved how it both felt connected to The Midnight Library but also had it's own feel, it's own theme, and it's own plot. I resonated so much with it which honestly made it a little tough to read at times - it was giving me a reality check I didn't know I needed!!!!
I LOVE a fiction mixed with romance & magical realism, especially when that magical element is giving time travel - and this one gave me everything I wanted.
Thank you to Viking books for the copy!
I loved how it both felt connected to The Midnight Library but also had it's own feel, it's own theme, and it's own plot. I resonated so much with it which honestly made it a little tough to read at times - it was giving me a reality check I didn't know I needed!!!!
I LOVE a fiction mixed with romance & magical realism, especially when that magical element is giving time travel - and this one gave me everything I wanted.
Thank you to Viking books for the copy!
June 22, 2026
9 August 1974, Venice.
Maggie and Wilbur Budd are on honeymoon, first time out of the country, so in love, so happy!
But he starts talking about the bookshop, of asking a loan to the bank to upgrade the store, and then preparing to enjoy a wonderful meal in one of the best restaurants in Venice.
52 years later.
Wilbur, 81 years-old, dies alone in the hospital a minute after midnight.
Before, at home, he briefly talked to Maggie on the phone, after 30 years, because she had dreamed of him.
The moment his heart stopped and he was dead, he starts falling through light, then darkness, a sense of a young body, no aches, almost alive.
He's in a train platform that instead of a name just said "Wilbur", and soon a steaming engine train arrives and a lady gets out.
Her name is Agnes.
She's a ghost and her mission will be to guide him through the life he had just lived.
She looks familiar because she was Agnes Bagsdale, owner of the bookshop in Sheffield when he was a little boy, an amazing person who could match a book with almost everyone and that used to say "Books are mirrors for the soul."
Not an old lady now, but herself in 1921 before the shop.
Reality is different in death and it takes time to get used to it, but the rules are simple.
When the train stops he will be going back in time as a ghost, back to a very real and living world, the final destiny eternity!
He gets on and off the train, he never tries to speak to himself and he must never be there when the living him falls asleep.
The purpose of the train is to help him understand his life!
He's dressed exactly when he was 29, on his honeymoon, the time when he became closest to his true self.
The first stop he sees is his father 's plane exploding in WWII, he wasn't even born, and he closes his eyes.
But the point of life flashing before one's eyes is that he had to see it, Agnes said.
The next one he sees himself as a baby in the pram, with is mother and his brother Dougie, and Wilbur, the Ghost, tried to interact with them.
Then the first time he saw Maggie.
Days, weeks, months, years flashed by, sometimes the stops lasted only a few minutes, sometimes hours.
He started to work at the bookshop during Saturdays, having the same gift as Mrs. Bagsdale, at the time already deceased.
When they arrive at 27 July 1964 he refuses to get out of the train, but he had no choice but witness his brother's death again, feeling guilty, grief and pain, and the course of his life takes a different path!
He started working 6 days a week at the bookshop, and when Wilbur and Maggie meet at the cemetery the Ghost whispered him what he had to do.
And maybe he didn't hear him, but something got through and he created a difference in the timeline and the train almost go off track.
If that happened he would disappear at the same time as te Midnight Train!
Agnes was furious with him, he could have ruined everything.
He wouldn't get his eternity and would never see Maggie again!
The Ghost watched the love between Wilbur and Maggie blooming, leading to their marriage and the honeymoon in Venice.
When that stop arrived the Ghost remembered that Wilbur had seen him there too and he had a plan.
Agnes tried to reason with him but he wouldn't go back to the train.
Wilbur fell asleep and he saw the Ghost, his doppelganger, when he opened his eyes in the dream.
And the train came for both of them, because Wilbur would be shown his own future, and he became the Dreamer.
The Ghost wanted to give the Dreamer a chance to choose a different path, if all went well, not ending like he did!
The Dreamer saw himself working hard, got the loan, transfering his emotions to something less personal, and the Ghost told him he would be rich, famous, would win awards, and at the peak there would be more then two hundreed Bud Bookshops!
He was in shock, amazed!
"Love is the thing that hurt, and business was the opposite."
But he didn't understand why Maggie didn't appear more in the images they were seeing, him always alone and treating his mother unkindly and his best friend Charlie too. That he wasn't there for Maggie when she needed him and that he no longer cared about books or readers!
"Love is a garden. You have to keep tending to it."
The Ghost wondered "why he hadn't been better at it, at living in time, while he had the chance."
And that "to live fully was the best way to die."!
And "The only way to learn is to live."
Will the Dreamer gets the message of what he was seeing?
The Ghost hoped so!
(Aknowledgements: ... a book ... "About the importance of reading stories throughout life, of being transported into other lives and places and worlds.")
Maggie and Wilbur Budd are on honeymoon, first time out of the country, so in love, so happy!
But he starts talking about the bookshop, of asking a loan to the bank to upgrade the store, and then preparing to enjoy a wonderful meal in one of the best restaurants in Venice.
52 years later.
Wilbur, 81 years-old, dies alone in the hospital a minute after midnight.
Before, at home, he briefly talked to Maggie on the phone, after 30 years, because she had dreamed of him.
The moment his heart stopped and he was dead, he starts falling through light, then darkness, a sense of a young body, no aches, almost alive.
He's in a train platform that instead of a name just said "Wilbur", and soon a steaming engine train arrives and a lady gets out.
Her name is Agnes.
She's a ghost and her mission will be to guide him through the life he had just lived.
She looks familiar because she was Agnes Bagsdale, owner of the bookshop in Sheffield when he was a little boy, an amazing person who could match a book with almost everyone and that used to say "Books are mirrors for the soul."
Not an old lady now, but herself in 1921 before the shop.
Reality is different in death and it takes time to get used to it, but the rules are simple.
When the train stops he will be going back in time as a ghost, back to a very real and living world, the final destiny eternity!
He gets on and off the train, he never tries to speak to himself and he must never be there when the living him falls asleep.
The purpose of the train is to help him understand his life!
He's dressed exactly when he was 29, on his honeymoon, the time when he became closest to his true self.
The first stop he sees is his father 's plane exploding in WWII, he wasn't even born, and he closes his eyes.
But the point of life flashing before one's eyes is that he had to see it, Agnes said.
The next one he sees himself as a baby in the pram, with is mother and his brother Dougie, and Wilbur, the Ghost, tried to interact with them.
Then the first time he saw Maggie.
Days, weeks, months, years flashed by, sometimes the stops lasted only a few minutes, sometimes hours.
He started to work at the bookshop during Saturdays, having the same gift as Mrs. Bagsdale, at the time already deceased.
When they arrive at 27 July 1964 he refuses to get out of the train, but he had no choice but witness his brother's death again, feeling guilty, grief and pain, and the course of his life takes a different path!
He started working 6 days a week at the bookshop, and when Wilbur and Maggie meet at the cemetery the Ghost whispered him what he had to do.
And maybe he didn't hear him, but something got through and he created a difference in the timeline and the train almost go off track.
If that happened he would disappear at the same time as te Midnight Train!
Agnes was furious with him, he could have ruined everything.
He wouldn't get his eternity and would never see Maggie again!
The Ghost watched the love between Wilbur and Maggie blooming, leading to their marriage and the honeymoon in Venice.
When that stop arrived the Ghost remembered that Wilbur had seen him there too and he had a plan.
Agnes tried to reason with him but he wouldn't go back to the train.
Wilbur fell asleep and he saw the Ghost, his doppelganger, when he opened his eyes in the dream.
And the train came for both of them, because Wilbur would be shown his own future, and he became the Dreamer.
The Ghost wanted to give the Dreamer a chance to choose a different path, if all went well, not ending like he did!
The Dreamer saw himself working hard, got the loan, transfering his emotions to something less personal, and the Ghost told him he would be rich, famous, would win awards, and at the peak there would be more then two hundreed Bud Bookshops!
He was in shock, amazed!
"Love is the thing that hurt, and business was the opposite."
But he didn't understand why Maggie didn't appear more in the images they were seeing, him always alone and treating his mother unkindly and his best friend Charlie too. That he wasn't there for Maggie when she needed him and that he no longer cared about books or readers!
"Love is a garden. You have to keep tending to it."
The Ghost wondered "why he hadn't been better at it, at living in time, while he had the chance."
And that "to live fully was the best way to die."!
And "The only way to learn is to live."
Will the Dreamer gets the message of what he was seeing?
The Ghost hoped so!
(Aknowledgements: ... a book ... "About the importance of reading stories throughout life, of being transported into other lives and places and worlds.")
January 11, 2026
If you read and enjoyed the Midnight Library, you will love this book as well. It is poignant, reflective, and fraught with the perils and plights of life. While the storyline feels very much like A Christmas Carol by Dickens, it does also include moments that really make the reader think. There are several quotes in this book that you’ll want to remember in your own life. Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced copy.
August 8, 2026
__________________________
“Regrets, I’ve had a few”— 🎵My Way by Frank Sinatra🎵
Look. We all have regrets, right. Some of us have a long list of them. For example, someone might regret having a romantic, midnight picnic in a moonlit meadow without checking first for poison ivy––not that I know anyone who might have done something so stupid. Nope. That would really have been dumb. Definitely wasn’t me. No, not me. But yes, there are certainly things in my life that I wish I had NOT done🎵My Way🎵. Listening to Frank Sinatra records is one of them.
Wilbur has some serious regrets. For example, he is rich. Severely rich. And he regrets it. I know that sounds weird—being rich doesn’t mean you are a bad person, right? Well, OK, I retract that question. My bad.
Wilbur grew up as a very poor boy in a very impaired family. His one great joy in life was hanging around a small bookshop that was owned by a kindly woman who would recommend books to him and then let him read the books in the store. When he grew up, he became an employee at that tiny book emporium, met his future wife there, and eventually inherited the business when the owner passed away. See, good things happen when you butter up your elders.
Wilbur’s downfall begins on his honeymoon in Venice with the love of his life. She mentioned that she would like life to go on like this forever—the two of them enjoying being with each other and experiencing the wonders of life. Wilbur promised her he would make that happen, but he needed to open a second bookstore first. He said after a year or two the stores would be making enough money the two of them wouldn’t even have to work. Unfortunately, Wilbur turned out to be a great businessman.
Two bookstores became 4 and then 8, and Wilbur started building megastores to go into direct competition with the small independent book stores like the one he loved so as a young man, selling books at a discounted price that the small bookstore owners couldn’t afford to match. Eventually, Wilbur’s chain had stores in every town in the British Isles that was big enough to support one.
Of course, Wilbur had to work long hours to make this happen—too many hours for he and his wife to enjoy being with each other and far too many for them to experience the joys of life together. After a couple of decades, his wife, the joy of his life, left him. She just didn’t understand he had an empire to run.
Forty years later, when he turned 81 years old, he gets a call from his ex. He hadn’t spoken to her in over a decade. He apologized for his mistakes in their marriage and expressed his regrets for his stupidity, and then everything goes black and he drops dead.
He wakes up as a ghost on a train that is travelling through time and is accompanied by the soul of the original owner of the tiny bookstore where he learned to love books and bookstores. She says that she has been chosen to be his spirit guide and is going to take him on time travelling tour of his life to review his triumphs and failures and most especially his mistakes. Once the tour is completed, Wilbur will become a member of the happy family of Eternity.
However, Wilbur decides that he doesn’t want to just review his life, he wants to change it. Oh, Oh!
🌟🌟🌟 Stars.
I enjoyed the base concept, but there are potholes in this railroad. For instance:
👻The train stops at each important point in his life for only a short period of time, and Wilbur has to get back on the train immediately when the train whistle blows or something bad will happen—maybe. I don’t know why: you can’t be late for eternity can you?
👻Also, he is told that his living self cannot hear spirit-Wilbur if spirit-Wilbur tries to talk to living-Wilbur—but he shouldn’t do it anyway because bad things will happen—perhaps.
👻And the dumbest idea in the bunch is that spirit-Wilbur must definitely not be there when living-Wilbur falls asleep or else…
These rules are just ineffective patches on the plot holes that the author has dug himself into. However, I don't regret reading this book.
Here is a link to my review of the author’s previous book Midnight Library:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Midnight Train Photo © Pseudonymous d’Elder
“Regrets, I’ve had a few”— 🎵My Way by Frank Sinatra🎵
Look. We all have regrets, right. Some of us have a long list of them. For example, someone might regret having a romantic, midnight picnic in a moonlit meadow without checking first for poison ivy––not that I know anyone who might have done something so stupid. Nope. That would really have been dumb. Definitely wasn’t me. No, not me. But yes, there are certainly things in my life that I wish I had NOT done🎵My Way🎵. Listening to Frank Sinatra records is one of them.
Wilbur has some serious regrets. For example, he is rich. Severely rich. And he regrets it. I know that sounds weird—being rich doesn’t mean you are a bad person, right? Well, OK, I retract that question. My bad.
Wilbur grew up as a very poor boy in a very impaired family. His one great joy in life was hanging around a small bookshop that was owned by a kindly woman who would recommend books to him and then let him read the books in the store. When he grew up, he became an employee at that tiny book emporium, met his future wife there, and eventually inherited the business when the owner passed away. See, good things happen when you butter up your elders.
Wilbur’s downfall begins on his honeymoon in Venice with the love of his life. She mentioned that she would like life to go on like this forever—the two of them enjoying being with each other and experiencing the wonders of life. Wilbur promised her he would make that happen, but he needed to open a second bookstore first. He said after a year or two the stores would be making enough money the two of them wouldn’t even have to work. Unfortunately, Wilbur turned out to be a great businessman.
Two bookstores became 4 and then 8, and Wilbur started building megastores to go into direct competition with the small independent book stores like the one he loved so as a young man, selling books at a discounted price that the small bookstore owners couldn’t afford to match. Eventually, Wilbur’s chain had stores in every town in the British Isles that was big enough to support one.
Of course, Wilbur had to work long hours to make this happen—too many hours for he and his wife to enjoy being with each other and far too many for them to experience the joys of life together. After a couple of decades, his wife, the joy of his life, left him. She just didn’t understand he had an empire to run.
Forty years later, when he turned 81 years old, he gets a call from his ex. He hadn’t spoken to her in over a decade. He apologized for his mistakes in their marriage and expressed his regrets for his stupidity, and then everything goes black and he drops dead.
He wakes up as a ghost on a train that is travelling through time and is accompanied by the soul of the original owner of the tiny bookstore where he learned to love books and bookstores. She says that she has been chosen to be his spirit guide and is going to take him on time travelling tour of his life to review his triumphs and failures and most especially his mistakes. Once the tour is completed, Wilbur will become a member of the happy family of Eternity.
However, Wilbur decides that he doesn’t want to just review his life, he wants to change it. Oh, Oh!
🌟🌟🌟 Stars.
I enjoyed the base concept, but there are potholes in this railroad. For instance:
👻The train stops at each important point in his life for only a short period of time, and Wilbur has to get back on the train immediately when the train whistle blows or something bad will happen—maybe. I don’t know why: you can’t be late for eternity can you?
👻Also, he is told that his living self cannot hear spirit-Wilbur if spirit-Wilbur tries to talk to living-Wilbur—but he shouldn’t do it anyway because bad things will happen—perhaps.
👻And the dumbest idea in the bunch is that spirit-Wilbur must definitely not be there when living-Wilbur falls asleep or else…
These rules are just ineffective patches on the plot holes that the author has dug himself into. However, I don't regret reading this book.
Here is a link to my review of the author’s previous book Midnight Library:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Midnight Train Photo © Pseudonymous d’Elder
June 11, 2026
Wilbur Budd is 81 yrs old and upon his final breath he meets Agnes, a dear old friend and bookshop owner.
The Midnight Train arrives and Agnes guides Wilbur aboard. The train will take him on a journey from his life as a young child to the moment of his death so he can see his life's events both good and bad. He witnesses all in real time but is not to try to alter anything or he won't arrive in Eternity.
We observe all of the moments that shaped Wilbur from tragedies that shattered him to the love that defined him and where everything went wrong.
A reflection on what is important in this life The Midnight Train is a magical and beautiful story.
Highly Recommended!
Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins Canada for an arc of this novel in exchange for my honest review.
The Midnight Train arrives and Agnes guides Wilbur aboard. The train will take him on a journey from his life as a young child to the moment of his death so he can see his life's events both good and bad. He witnesses all in real time but is not to try to alter anything or he won't arrive in Eternity.
We observe all of the moments that shaped Wilbur from tragedies that shattered him to the love that defined him and where everything went wrong.
A reflection on what is important in this life The Midnight Train is a magical and beautiful story.
Highly Recommended!
Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins Canada for an arc of this novel in exchange for my honest review.
June 12, 2026
En su momento me gustó tanto La biblioteca de medianoche, que claramente tenía que leer este libro.
La historia sigue a un hombre que después de morir se sube a un tren en el que va recorriendo todos los momentos de su vida, los felices, los dolorosos, los vergonzosos y también esos de los que se arrepiente.
Da lugar a muchas reflexiones sobre las decisiones que tomamos y las oportunidades que dejamos pasar.
Leí varios libros de Matt Haig, pero los de este universo son mis favoritos. Son historias que, más allá de la trama, siempre dejan alguna enseñanza respecto a la vida misma.
Mi única crítica es que gran parte de los arrepentimientos y las reflexiones giran alrededor del amor romántico. Tiene momentos relacionados con la familia, la amistad y otros aspectos de la vida, pero me hubiera gustado que explorara esos temas con la misma profundidad.
Es una historia cálida, emotiva y fácil de leer. No me pareció tan inolvidable como La biblioteca de medianoche, pero igual dejó una linda sensación al terminarla.
La historia sigue a un hombre que después de morir se sube a un tren en el que va recorriendo todos los momentos de su vida, los felices, los dolorosos, los vergonzosos y también esos de los que se arrepiente.
Da lugar a muchas reflexiones sobre las decisiones que tomamos y las oportunidades que dejamos pasar.
Leí varios libros de Matt Haig, pero los de este universo son mis favoritos. Son historias que, más allá de la trama, siempre dejan alguna enseñanza respecto a la vida misma.
Mi única crítica es que gran parte de los arrepentimientos y las reflexiones giran alrededor del amor romántico. Tiene momentos relacionados con la familia, la amistad y otros aspectos de la vida, pero me hubiera gustado que explorara esos temas con la misma profundidad.
Es una historia cálida, emotiva y fácil de leer. No me pareció tan inolvidable como La biblioteca de medianoche, pero igual dejó una linda sensación al terminarla.
August 11, 2026
This story makes you question what's important in life.
*Magical Realism
*Thought Proving
*Magical Realism
*Thought Proving
August 11, 2026
this was so perfect, I loved this even more than the first book 🥹 definitely one that makes you think DEEPLY about life!
July 9, 2026
This was really something!
They say your life flashes before you before you die, and it seems that Matt Haig has expanded this idea into a thought provoking book that takes an elderly man, Wilbur, through the stops in his life where his choices became his destiny.
Wilbur, growing up poor, seems to want to be a success, wealthy, a father, and loved by the only women in his life, Maggie. However, for Wilbur, all these wants leads to a life that he learns to regret. He does attain fabulous wealth but oh at such a cost. His losses mount up, friendship destroyed, love gone, and time that he thought he had rapidly lost.
As he rides abroad the midnight train, assisted by a beloved book store owner, he comes to terms with what he had and lost. At each stop along the way, he witnesses what he once had and has lost. Why has he lost sight of his goal and where has this left him?
Money, greed, success, and wanting more are his companions through life, but what if he could go back and change it all?
Such an engrossing story that reflects the emotional, impassioned, and sentimental feelings for the past lives we have led and perhaps the ability to change before life's end is there, and the last stop has occurred.
I am still thinking about this story and wondering what would I have changed in my own life that would have made it a bit better for all.
They say your life flashes before you before you die, and it seems that Matt Haig has expanded this idea into a thought provoking book that takes an elderly man, Wilbur, through the stops in his life where his choices became his destiny.
Wilbur, growing up poor, seems to want to be a success, wealthy, a father, and loved by the only women in his life, Maggie. However, for Wilbur, all these wants leads to a life that he learns to regret. He does attain fabulous wealth but oh at such a cost. His losses mount up, friendship destroyed, love gone, and time that he thought he had rapidly lost.
As he rides abroad the midnight train, assisted by a beloved book store owner, he comes to terms with what he had and lost. At each stop along the way, he witnesses what he once had and has lost. Why has he lost sight of his goal and where has this left him?
Money, greed, success, and wanting more are his companions through life, but what if he could go back and change it all?
Such an engrossing story that reflects the emotional, impassioned, and sentimental feelings for the past lives we have led and perhaps the ability to change before life's end is there, and the last stop has occurred.
I am still thinking about this story and wondering what would I have changed in my own life that would have made it a bit better for all.
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