The #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Spark of Light returns with a thought-provoking and otherworldly new novel about the fates that we choose for ourselves and what happens when we have the chance to choose again.
As a death doula, Dawn Edelstein knows everything there is to know about dying. She specialises in helping her clients make peace with the end of their lives. But as she’s flying home from her latest case, she is caught in a terrible plane crash and is forced to confront her own mortality for the first time.
Instead of seeing her brilliant quantum physicist husband, Brian, and their beloved daughter, Meret, flash before her eyes in what she assumes are her last moments, only one face is shockingly clear: Wyatt Armstrong.
Safely on the ground, Dawn now faces a desperate decision. Should she return to Boston, her family and the life she knows, or journey back to an Egyptian archaeological site she left over a decade earlier, reconnect with Wyatt, and finally finish her abandoned dissertation on the ancient Egyptian coffin text, The Book of Two Ways.
As the story unfolds, Dawn must confront the questions she’s never truly answered: What does a life well-lived look like? When we depart this earth, what do we leave behind of ourselves? And who would you be if you hadn’t turned out to be the person you are right now?
I’m not going to lie, I’m a big Jodi Picoult fan; Her books always explore unique and fascinating subject-matter, usually with a strong female character at the centre, and The Book of Two Ways is no exception. Dawn is a fully realised and complex character, and it was a pleasure to follow her journey.
Dawn’s story is told through three separate timelines: Dawn as a wife, mother and death doula in Boston where her marriage is in turmoil, Dawn as a young and ambitious grad student on a dig site in Egypt where she falls for fellow student and rival Wyatt, and in the present, fifteen years later, when she returns to Egypt and is reunited with Wyatt after all these years apart. Each of these plotlines came together like pieces of a puzzle, revealing more about Dawn’s past, her relationships, and how she came to this critical juncture in her life.
Insightful, emotional and so very compelling, The Book of Two Ways is yet another must-read from the very talented Jodi Picoult.
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