Stunning book. Broke my heart.

Disagreeing with most people here - I thought it did get better. There were two points where it lifted for me - one is a short while after she's arrived in the library, and the other is toward the end. I found the beginning pretty tedious, and it took me a while to care about her, but I love the book now.

I'd add that I thought there was enough in the beginning that made it clear that Norma's life had been too sad for too long, and she just couldn't take it anymore, not that she'd just had a bad day.