The Midnight Library

Nora wakes up in Svalbard. She’s sharing a cabin with a woman named Ingrid Skirbekk, professor of geoscience. Nora quickly realizes that she’s hungover and that she’s far more out of shape in this life than in previous lives. The cold here in Svalbard is the type that almost burns. It creeps through layers of thermals and clothing. When Ingrid asks Nora why she became a glaciologist, Nora quips about loving the cold. Nora asks Ingrid the same question to avoid having to answer.

Ingrid discusses the intimate details of her life, and Nora gathers from this trust that the women are close. After Ingrid’s lover died, Ingrid tried forgetting him, but his presence haunted her wherever she went. She fled to the farthest place, Svalbard, yet grief still haunts her because grief operates on memory. Meanwhile, Nora notices a rifle in the cabin and feels, for the first time, like she’s living an adventurous life.

Nora goes to the cafeteria while attempting to keep a low profile. She watches the eerily beautiful landscape from the windows and makes mental notes about her fellow scientists. One of them, a man who would fit in better on a sunny beach somewhere, sits next to her and introduces himself as