The Book of Two Ways was everything I wanted it to be and more. It has been more than 24 hours since I finished reading it and I still can’t get it out of my head.

Followers of my reviews will notice that I tend to enjoy books by Jodi Picoult anyway, but this was another level. The characters were so skilfully created that I felt like I knew them personally and I have been left with a feeling of dissatisfaction that the book is finished. Having said that the ending is absolutely perfect, and my dissatisfaction is just a reflection of how good the book was.

Dawn makes her living as a death doula, anticipating the needs of the dying and giving them comfort in their final hours. She thinks she knows all there is about death. She is wrong.

When the plane Dawn is on plummets, she finds her thoughts are with a man she hasn’t seen for more than fifteen years rather than with her husband and daughter.

“For someone who makes a living through death, I haven’t given a lot of thought to my own. I have heard that when you are about to die your life flashes before your eyes.

But I do not picture my husband, Brian…Or Meret, as a little girl, asking me to check for monsters under the bed…

Instead I see him.

As clearly as if it was yesterday. I imagine Wyatt in the middle of the Egyptian desert, the sun beating down on his hat, his neck wringed with dirt from the constant wind, his teeth a flash of lightning. A man who hasn’t been part of my life for fifteen years.”

Dawn is lucky enough to survive the plane crash and has to choose whether to go home to her loving family in Boston or to travel to her former lover in Egypt.

The Book of Two Ways explores both these outcomes and how much of a role choice plays in the outcome of our lives.

The book is split into two scenarios – in the first Dawn board a plane to Egypt and travels to the site of a dig lead by her former lover Wyatt. Once there she convinces him to give her a job and gets to see what life would have been like if she had pursued her career as an Egyptologist.

“One of the questions I ask my clients is What’s left unfinished? What is it that you haven’t done yet, that you need to do before you leave this life?...For me, it’s this.

As a child I can vividly remember loving learning about Ancient Egypt at school, so I relished the chance to learn more about the Ancient Egyptians during the course of this book. It is clear that Picoult thoroughly researched Egyptian views on the afterlife and has put a lot of effort into making sure every detail is right.

The second timeline sees Dawn arrive home to a troubled marriage with her Husband Brian and a troubled relationship with her daughter Meret. Try as she might she can’t seem to say the right thing to her and every move she makes pushes her further away.

In this timeline Dawn seeks refuge in her job and in the life, or death, of her latest client Win. This section of the book was fascinating for me also because I loved learning about all the different customs people have in relation to death.

Additionally, many of the things Dawn says and feels about looking after the dying are how I feel about looking after people at the end of their life. It was her compassion for the dying that helped me warm to her as a character.

“Death is scary and confusing and painful, and facing it alone shouldn’t be the norm.

I realised I could do something about that”

I felt that the author really understood the grieving process and also what it feels like to look after someone who is at the end of their life.

“After thirteen years of end-of-life work, I know that we do a shitty job of intellectually and emotionally preparing for death. How can you enjoy life if you spend every minute focusing on the end of it? I know that most people – like my mother was – are afraid to talk about death, as if it’s contagious. I know that you are the same person when you die that you were when you were alive – if you are feisty in life, you’ll be feisty at the end of life.”

There were also a lot of flashbacks in the book showing the development of Wyatt and Dawn’s relationship which I loved. In fact, I struggled to warm to Brian because I wanted Dawn to end up with Wyatt.

As for Dawn, I loved her character despite being clearly flawed and many of her actions being incredibly selfish. The book wouldn’t have worked if she wasn’t, and when the reasons for her actions are explained it is easier to warm to her.

The Book of Two Ways is utterly fantastic, I loved it so much that I may well just read it all over again.

Dawn was a brilliant graduate student in Egyptology, out on a dig in Cairo where she falls in love with Wyatt, an equally talented member of the team. After they make an exciting discovery together, Dawn learns that her mother is dying and she has to fly home to help nurse her and to care for her younger brother. Fifteen years later she is married with a teenage daughter, never returned to Egypt, Wyatt or her studies, and is working as a death doula, helping terminally ill patients to put their lives in order and reach acceptance about dying. Her experiences with a particular patient make her begin to think about how her life might have been different, and when she is in a plane crash she decides to fly straight out to Cairo to find Wyatt and the life she left behind.
This is a thoughtful and insightful story about love, death and what makes a life meaningful. Egyptian beliefs about mortality and the afterlife are compared with the modern way, with reflections on different kinds of love, destiny and family. Picoult really conveys the excitement to be found in uncovering new evidence on ancient history and interacting with artefacts, although I did not share her enthusiasm for all the detailed analysis of Egyptian history and beliefs and often skipped those sections in the book! I also liked the portrayal of Dawn’s daughter, an awkward teenager fretting over her weight and finding it hard to fit in at school. In common with many of the author’s previous books, difficult choices have to be made, and the reader will be moved to think about some big issues- sacrifice, fidelity, parenthood, and most of all, how we want to live and to die.

As always, a great Jodi Picoult read. I loved the open ending, which made a nice change. Twists well executed and although the historical detail was a bit heavy it was interesting. Another 5 stars

An interesting and intriguing story which flits between the past and the present day. Although a great read and I love Jodi Picoult I found this one not quite as enjoyable as previous ones. The mystery just wasn't the same for me here. Still worth a read though and I enjoyed it by the time I got to the end.

Am I being too generous giving three stars?

In the past, when I’ve seen that Jodi Picoult has published a new book, I usually jump with joy and can’t wait to bury myself in her writing. Not this time.

Dawn Edelstein (formally McDowell) survives an air accident. Instead of seeing her husband Brian and her daughter Meret as the plane is about to crash she instead she pictures her first love, Wyatt, an Egyptologist.

After the crash, instead of going straight home to Brian and Meret, she goes to Egypt – to Wyatt and once again starts working with him.

Reading back over what I’ve written I’m sure many are going to say “what’s your problem? It sounds like a brilliant book.” Unfortunately, for me, it didn’t gel. As interested as I am in Egyptology, I found the subject consumed the book.

Sorry Jodi Picoult, hopefully, next time I’ll be able to rave about your work once again.

Rony

Elite Reviewing Group received a copy of the book to review.

If you enjoyed the ‘what if’ of Sliding Doors, this may be the read for you. Dawn Edelstein is a death doula (helping those preparing for death), a mother whose teenage daughter has body image issues and a husband with whom she’s been married for 15 years. So far, so normal. But when we first meet Dawn, she is on a plane that’s plummeting and her life flashes in front of her eyes. Fortunately she survives and the reader is taken on a journey between Dawn’s past and present and we question whether her desire to revisit ‘what might have been’ is the best course of action for her. Dawn once dreamt of pursuing a career in Egyptology and was thoroughly involved in another life, one of tombs and mummified remains and hieroglyphics. It was also the time of another man, Wyatt, about whom she was passionate, but decisions and events meant that he was the one who got away. You can tell there’s a lot of work gone into the research for the book and that’s something that Picoult is always to be praised for. I enjoyed it in the sense of seeing how Dawn’s life could have turned out.

Dawn lives with her husband Bryan and her daughter Merit in Boston. After surviving a plane crash she reconsiders the things that she has done in her life and thinks if she could have done things differently. She goes back 15 years when she was a grad student in Egypt excavating tombs with handsome Wyatt and wonders if she could have finished her PHD. Fifteen years later, Dawn works as Death Doula, providing support for the dying and the family in this time. She is good at her job but contemplates whether she could have done things differently in her own life.
Thank you, Hodder and Staughton and NetGalley for a copy of The Book of Two ways by Jodi Picoult. I am a big fan of the author, but I am afraid this book wasn’t for me.
I felt that half of this book was like reading a textbook in Egyptology and quantum physics and then the other half was all about death which I felt was quite depressing and neither did I find interesting. I am sorry to say I could not finish this book.

I do love books that ask us to look at moments of choice in our lives! What if I had done x instead of y? This novel does this beautifully. A plane crashes and you are given the choice of just carrying on where you are or going back and finding out what would have happened if you followed your heart. Beautifully written, captivating and thought provoking. Whats not to love?

I have read a few Jodi Picoult books and was therefore delighted to be given the opportunity to read this book, she usually tackles controversial subjects with brilliant characters that you can empathise with whatever your views on the subject matter.
This one unfortunately didn’t do it for me, it was about second chances and first loves and looses but way too much physics and Egyptology for a lay person ( and I like Egyptian history) and in all honesty I didn’t really care about what happens to the characters, I kept reading to the end but didn’t enjoy it.

Sorry but thank you for the opportunity to read this book.

"We all have stories we tell ourselves, until we believe them to be true."
Fifteen years ago, Dawn was forced to abandon her burgeoning career as an Egyptologist and the man who shared her passion. Now she is a death doula helping people prepare to die, and living quietly with her husband and daughter. But her life begins to fork in two different directions, and she finds herself contemplating what was and what could be.
This book is incredibly immersive. The running theme is the idea of parallel timelines leading to the ultimate destination. Primarily explored through the idea of the afterlife in Ancient Egypt, and also through Dawn's husband's job as a quantum physicist. The Egyptian history and discoveries Dawn reveals are fascinating, and brilliantly drawn from real life research. I did struggle a little to connect with the story, as we are thrown into this rich history with very little information about the characters. But the way the story builds layer upon layer completely surrounded me, and I could not stop reading. The structure of the book is also fantastic, and at points will turn on its head everything you thought you knew about the story so far. I felt challenged, intrigued and totally engrossed. The side plot with Win is beautiful, and Meret is an understated and wonderful character throughout. A slow starter for me but so worth it.

My word, when Jodi Piccoult gets it right you read with such a fierce intensity. This novel starts like this then falls away to tell the story of a woman who, when faced with her death, questions the choices she has made in her life and the lies and sins of ommission.

Death is the theme running though this book, either death in an unexpected way, how to deal with an inevitable death through illness or extreme old age and the Egyptian book of the dead. It is the punctuation of the book and drives the narrative.

Sounds like a rich brew and at times it is rich and satisfying. But, and this is a big but, there are times when it reads like a first year archaeology text book. It is obvious that a huge amount of research went into this book. That does not mean it needs to be shared with us in in its entirety. And, that is before we get to the physics lesson. It is almost as if the novel was written by two different people. The Jodi Piccoult w know and love with her emotional reach and intensity and a rookie researcher.

I am a huge fan of Jodi Piccoult and and have read many of her books, I am glad I have read this but do not feel it is her best novel. Rather bloated and in need of some editing.. If you are a first time reader, start with another novel to understand her nuance and grasp of contemporary issues

Dawn is a death doula. She spends her days helping people come to terms with their death and preparing them and their loved ones for the inevitable end but when she’s forced to face her own mortality after surviving a plane crash her thoughts turn to her life as an Egyptologist 15 years before and the man she left behind. As her life splits off in two directions she’s forced to choose between the life she’s built herself with her husband and daughter and the man she left all those years before.

I pride myself on giving spoiler free reviews so this one is going to be very difficult to write.

First things first, I loved it. I’ve long been a fan of Picoult’s writing so was incredibly happy to get the chance to read this before release date, particularly as I normally wait for the paperback. The plot is quite different from a lot of her previous books but still has that signature Picoult magic about it.

I love Picoult’s writing style, it has such a nice flow to it that I found myself completely hooked into the story and couldn’t put it down. I’ve had a fairly busy few days but was prioritising my reading whenever I could because I couldn’t wait to find out what was going to happen next.

Dawn reminded me a lot of myself. She’s spent the last 15 years of her life putting other people’s needs ahead of her own and never really complaining. The story is told in first person narrative from her point of view so we really get an insight into who she is and how she thinks. The plot is then split into two threads, Dawn at home with her husband, Brian, and daughter, Meret, and Dawn in Egypt getting re-acquainted with her ex-boyfriend, Wyatt. We also see past events through Dawn reminiscing and having flashbacks.

I loved learning a little about Ancient Egypt and also Dawn’s job as a death doula, which sounded really interesting. I also related to Meret’s struggles with her weight and identity.

This is a really exceptionally told story that made me think a lot about my own life, where I’ve been and where I’m going. Fans of Picoult will love it and I’d urge anyone who’s considered trying her books to pick this one up as it really is a brilliant story with some twists along the way, including one fully jaw dropping moment that I never saw coming.

This is an engaging story about love, life and regret. Dawn is a death doula and she deals with regret on a daily basis through her work. But her own life is riddled with regret and thoughts of "the one that got away" too.
This could have been a five-star book - Jodi Picoult is a master storyteller - but at times it was a bit heavy going, like wading through an Egyptology textbook. The detail was interesting but I found myself skimming some of the longer parts. There were times when I was a bit confused about which time period we were in, but I suspect that this may have been the author's intention.
So, a solid four-star read, particularly if you're interested in Egyptology!

Jodie Picoult was one of my favourite authors in my early 20s but maybe I have outgrown her writing, I don’t know but I haven’t enjoyed the last three books she has had published. This one had good potential and felt more like her older books in part but actually was too information heavy, at times it felt more i like I was reading non fiction which stopped me from experiencing the escapism I like to enjoy when reading a book.

Firstly I’m a huge fan of Jodie picoult’s writing And own a large selection of her books.
This one wasn’t for me.
I love Egyptology and enjoyed hearing about the tombs and different aspects of Egyptian life however it was a little too heavy in this story and I found myself glazing over those sections and not really taking in what I was reading... the story itself was a little confusing as we start with Dawn our main character surviving a plane crash and making a decision to travel to Egypt to confront her past. I found it difficult to see where I was in the story/timeline at any given point and that took me out of the story.
I did however find the whole “death doula” Aspect of the story really interesting! Is this a thing?
Overall a good storyline that unfortunately didn’t hit the spot for me.

A few years ago I was lucky enough to meet Jodi Picoult, and ask her some questions. She was promoting her novel Sing You Home and the question I wanted to ask was about the ideas she has for her novels; do the characters or the issue come to her first. Most of her novels are based round a controversial issue - from childhood illness, to abortion, racism and the rights to IVF embryos. These are not easy issues to tackle. Picoult replied that it was usually the issue that came first. She would mull it over for a while and if it stayed with her for a few weeks, she would know it had the potential for a novel. Then, slowly, the characters would start to come and tell their story. I have now read all of her novels so I was really excited to have an ARC of this via NetGalley.

The background to her latest work is Egyptology, most specifically The Book of Two Ways - an ancient text that tells of the two ways a Pharoah had of successfully reaching the Underworld, one by water and one by land. Picoult uses this as the PHD research subject for our main character Dawn, but it also informs the structure of the novel. Two narratives told side by side, representing a split in Dawn’s life where she could have turned in a different direction. We appear to be following parallel lives. Dawn has been married to Brian for several years and they have a teenage daughter, Meret. They are comfortably sliding into middle age and a mature stage of marriage, where Dawn observes love is not just a feeling, it’s a choice. Brian is a scientist, teaching at university and Meret takes after him, also having an interest in scientific experiments. From the outside they must look like a steady, settled rrarriage, but as always it’s a different story underneath. The catalyst seems to come when a woman at Brian’s workplace strikes up a friendship, asking him to help with DIY around the flat and eventually offering the chance of an affair. Brian doesn’t take it, but for some reason even the possibility shakes Dawn to the core. It sends her spiralling back to her graduate years when she went to Egypt in pursuit of her PhD research and met Wyatt. Wyatt was a fellow researcher, their lines of enquiry complement each other, but he’s everything she hates in a person - arrogant and privileged. However, just as their dislike turns to passion, Dawn is dragged back to the USA for her mother’s death. She leaves Egypt with no idea whether she will be able to return. Now, in light of Brian’s revelations, Dawn wonders whether she made the right choice back then and is it too late to change her mind? Our other narrative follows that route.

I was straight away fascinated by Dawn’s job as death doula - I’m only just aware of the existence of birth doulas so this was totally new to me. Once I’d read what her job entailed, I realised it would suit my experience and skills. I have had the privilege to be with someone as they’ve died a few times, through my husband’s final weeks but also when I’ve worked in a nursing home both as carer, and years latter and advocate for people with complex disabilities. Occasionally, if there was a resident I was fond of and they had no relatives to sit with them I would go in on my day off to be with them. I was young, and not always sure of what to do but sensed instinctively that someone needed to be there as these people left the world. Dawn fulfils a role many other professionals can’t and liaises between those professionals and the patient. She makes sure that what that person wants - whether it’s ice cream at midnight or to contact a long lost love - is what they get. Her relationship with client Win was one of best parts of this novel for me. To respond to a dying person with total focus and compassion, whilst making sure their final wishes and their dignity is intact, is a skill that can’t be taught. It is a great example of a therapeutic relationship because the women affect each other, this isn’t a one way street. Win has wisdom and counsel for Dawn. They can see echoes of each other’s lives in their early passionate first loves, followed by their stable, loving and respectful marriages. The care that Win gets from her husband is a world away from the affair she had as an art student with Thane Bernard, a famous painter. It reminded me of the UEA Fanthorpe poem ‘Atlas’ which begins ‘ there is a kind of love called maintenance’. Win proposes that we each have experience of these different kinds of relationships, that the one we have last is wiser, more nurturing and understanding. The things we need as we’re older are very different from our idealistic and impulsive younger years, but we must never doubt that both are types of love.

The Egyptian return narrative is interesting because we’re never fully sure where it fits or even whether it’s real or Dawn’s day dreaming. It’s also fascinating to see what her reception will be. All the time we’ve been listening to Dawn’s version and now we see the effect her sudden departure had on Wyatt. The rascally Indiana Jones I’d been expecting was really Dawn’s view of him. In reality he was shattered by her choice not to return. There’s a sense of time standing still in this ancient place, not just for the Pharaoh’s tombs but for the dig itself. Dawn finds the same house, serviced by the same family but will her hope, that Wyatt hasn’t moved on either, come to pass? Even if his feelings haven’t changed what hope is there for a relationship that belonged in this temporary home, thousands of miles away. How will Wyatt respond to her marriage and her daughter? He doesn’t seem like the kind of person who will drop his work and become the family man.

This wasn’t my favourite Jodi Picoult novel, but it’s far from her worst. The research for the Egyptian sections alone must have been painstaking and I did have a belief in her characters - particularly in sections between Dawn and Win. I did feel there was a bit too much academic Egyptian detail too early and it prevented me getting into the emotions and the story. It was an interesting background to Dawn’s current work and how death rituals are very important and vary so much in different cultures. There were also a couple of aspects of Dawn’s return to the US that I didn’t understand, such as the timing of her return and meeting Brian. The big revelation towards the end of the book seemed unlikely. I couldn’t imagine that Dawn had never asked herself or even suspected. It was also amazing that her relationship to Brian had endured despite such a hurried start. I wondered if her strong reaction to his student’s crush was more about finding a way out. Brian has been a bit oblivious to this woman’s advances, but there is something endearing about that. He wouldn’t expect anyone to be interested and as soon as it’s apparent how she feels, he leaves and tells Dawn. There is a sense that Dawn wants out of this relationship, but is struggling to be the one who ends it. She doesn’t want to be the bad guy. This worry about hurting others can be seen as she tries to carry out Win’s final wishes.

Often with Picoult’s books you can see that the ‘issue’ has come first, and I did wonder if the exploration of Ancient Egypt was something she’d wanted to write about for some time. It sat neatly with Dawn’s job and the whole novel’s theme of the end of life. It was interesting to think about the rituals carried out by the Egyptians - I’ve always wondered how they got a whole brain out of someone’s nose - and our squeamish response to death. We don’t talk about it, so we never express our feeling about the sort of death and funeral we want. It’s almost as if our enduring fascination with the burial chambers of the Pharaohs is in direct contrast to our avoidance of the subject in relation to ourselves. Dawn’s job cuts through that and in its way is a lot like counselling, in that she asks the questions and has the conversations that the dying person can’t have with their family. Interestingly, despite her role to be open about death, Dawn isn’t being honest or open about life. She’s settled herself into a default position where she’s felt safe, but a brush with death changes everything. I think I wanted a different ending. I felt for Meret who doesn’t seem to get much quality time with her mother and I can’t remember a point in the novel where they simply have fun together as a family. She’s expected to get her head round massive changes very quickly too. I would have liked Dawn to take some time with her daughter, just the two of them and get settled on their own terms. There was a lot to like here, the research, the themes of life and death, characterisation and as always with Picoult you can relax knowing you’re with a master at storytelling. It just doesn’t reach the heights of Small Great Things or The Storyteller.

I am a massive fan of Jodi Picoult and was really looking forward to reading this one. Unfortunately I struggled a bit with this one. I found all the chapters on Egyptology quite boring and found myself skimming through those parts. There were however some good parts to the story which I really enjoyed.

I found this book fascinating and absorbing. I loved Dawn’s story of her life as a death doula as well as woven in with Egyptian history was so interesting. I couldn’t put it down and like the other books I’ve read by this author, it wasn’t wrapped up neatly at the end! Great book, brilliant if you love Egypt

I have read most books by this author and enjoyed them all but sorry this one just wasn't for me and I couldn't finish it.

Thank you to Netgalley and Hodder & Stoughton for giving me the opportunity to read this book.

This is the first novel I read by the Author. I must say I haven't finished it, but I'll update my review if and when I do. I'm finding the style pleasant to read, but the first half of the book goes into long detailed sections about Egyptology that are interesting but not what I look for in a fiction novel and end up being boring in this context. The whole story develops from an extreme event and goes on being not much relatable, with elements of a chick-lit romance mixed with the overarching theme of death. I'm curious to read the ending but not enough to get through such a long book right now. However, if you're interested in the themes of death, destiny, Egyptology, you'll enjoy it.