The Book of Two Ways 

In the context of ancient Egyptian culture, the Book of Two Ways wasn’t a book at all. Instead, it was a collection of spells and illustrations inscribed on the interiors of coffins and tomb walls. Dating back to the Middle Kingdom, the Book of Two Ways was essentially a map for the deceased’s journey to the afterlife, detailing two possible routes: a land route depicted in black and a water route depicted in blue. Both of these routes posed several challenges in the form of monsters and infernos that the deceased had to overcome.

On the other hand, Jodi Picoult’s The Book of Two Ways is Dawn’s journey of wondering what her life would have been like if she had become an Egyptologist as she had initially planned instead of becoming a death doula. Fifteen years after leaving her research in Egypt behind, Dawn has built a life with a loving husband and a teenage daughter. Not straying too far from the Coffin Texts that assisted the deceased, Dawn’s work as a death doula allows her to offer solace and guidance to her terminally ill clients as they confront the inevitable.

Yet, Dawn’s seemingly perfect life begins to crumble as she confronts growing tension with her husband and the self-image issues of her daughter. As if that weren’t enough, her new client, with a past that feels ripped from the pages of her own, throws Dawn’s carefully constructed world into chaos.