Your plane is about to crash. As your life, your hopes, your dreams, your frantic thoughts plunge out of the sky, what is it—who is it—you fix upon? For the passenger in seat 12C, surprisingly, it wasn’t her beloved husband, Brian, or her much-adored daughter, Meret, that came to mind. No, it was Wyatt who streaked across her consciousness.
Dawn Edelstein survives that crash. In the aftermath of having had those life-flashing-before-her-eyes moments, the airline offers her a flight to anywhere she needs to go. She should go home, but where is home? Is it the home she knows now, or the home she once found in the man she loved so many years ago?
The Book of Two Ways, by Jodi Picoult, is a book of what ifs, a book of parallel universes, a book of diverging and converging pathways. It is a book that explores what might have been even as one is living the what is.
Before Dawn got the call that her mother was dying of cancer, she was deeply, passionately in love with her life as an Egyptologist graduate student working on a dissertation delving into The Book of Two Ways. That book was the Egyptian's map to the afterlife. There were two pathways one could follow on the journey to the next plane.
When Dawn was faced with the decision no daughter wishes to face, she chose to leave behind her much-anticipated life of the mind, in academia, and life of the heart, with Wyatt Armstrong, the man with whom she shared the exhilaration of discovery. Together, they had burned bright with promise.
As things come to pass, Dawn’s season of maternal care-giving leads her to a new career as a death doula—one who helps those on their end-of-life journeys. She meets, and marries, Brian Edelstein, a physicist. Their life is unfolding rather predictably until Dawn’s moment of reckoning on that plummeting aircraft.
Dawn accepts that free ticket to anywhere from the airline. Her destination? Egypt. Wyatt. Her unresolved past.
How will this decision impact her future, her marriage, Wyatt, her relationship with her child, her trajectory through life? No spoilers here. You will want to read The Book of Two Ways to learn how things resolve themselves (or not).
I have always found Jodi Picoult’s books to be compelling. She is an extremely gifted writer who always takes her readers on journeys that matter. This book was one of my most anticipated reads of 2020. I was elated when approved to review an ARC ahead of the September 22nd release of this publication.
My enthusiastic interest in The Book of Two Ways had to do with my current explorations into becoming an end-of-life doula. It comes as no surprise that the chapters dealing with Dawn’s interactions with those in the process of transitioning from this life were my favorite chapters.
Though I have long found Egyptian life quite fascinating, I felt a bit mired in the denser sections of this book (and I typically enjoy the challenge of great depth). That said, I greatly admire the intense research and explorations that went into birthing this highly ambitious novel. I’m glad I read this book and do encourage you to let it take you on what it is sure to be a very reflective journey. This book is meaty and will require something from you.
If you, like me, have ever pondered the what-ifs of your life choices, you are sure to come away from this read with the kinds of insights that will enrich your current pathway. I have no doubt this book will come to mind the next time I am standing at a crossroads.
I wish to thank Jodi Picoult and her publishing company, Random House, for this opportunity to read The Book of Two Ways in return for an honest review.
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