What if your life turned out differently than you had planned?
What if the last person you thought of before a near death experience wasn’t your spouse, but someone you loved from your past?
What if you had a chance to do it all over again? Would you do anything differently?
These questions and more are the central focus of author Jodi Picoult’s new novel, The Book of Two Ways, published Sept. 22.
Picoult’s latest novel follows Dawn Edelstein, a death doula (essentially a therapist for people who are dying and their loved ones) who has a near-death experience during a plane crash. As Dawn prepares for the crash, she thinks not of her husband Brian, but of a man she last saw 15 years ago: Wyatt Armstrong.
Dawn remembers her past as an Egyptology student, when she worked with Wyatt in Egypt and the two fell for each other. Their love story was cut short by Dawn’s mother suffering from cancer and Dawn hurrying back to America to be with her mother in her final days.
The story is set up in two timelines: one is a trip to Egypt that Dawn takes to find out what would have happened had her life plans not been altered. On her journey, there are flashbacks to Dawn’s college days, meeting Wyatt and working with him in Egypt. The second is an anecdote of the near past, where Dawn’s husband Brian grew close to another woman, and Dawn’s daughter Meret struggles with her body image and fitting in with her peers.
The two timelines are divided into Land/Egypt for Dawn’s time reuniting with Wyatt and remembering the old days and Water/Boston for the near past with Dawn’s family in Boston. The names of the timelines are an homage to an ancient Egyptian coffin text known as “The Book of Two Ways.” The Book of Two Ways contains one of the first known maps off the underworld and shows the possible paths to the afterlife.
As both timelines unfold, it’s not exactly clear where each fits in the story. Indeed, it’s not exactly clear if the plane crash prompted the trip to Egypt, or if Brian’s possible infidelity motivated Dawn to seek out her old life and see what might have been.
Throughout the story, Dawn considers her dilemma: she obviously loves Brian and Meret and has a responsibility to them. On the other hand, her relationship with Wyatt seems as strong as ever, and it’s clear both Dawn and Wyatt still care deeply for each other, even after 15 years apart.
Picoult also presents the character Win, who is Dawn’s newest client, and is about the same age as Dawn, suffering from cancer. Win’s story is similar to Dawn’s; she also has a past lover she is curious about, and Win wonders how her own life might have turned out differently had she stayed with the first man she loved.
Picoult does a fine job presenting this dilemma throughout the story. On the one hand, readers want Dawn to remain faithful to her husband and daughter. On the other hand, Wyatt is a good man, and he and Dawn are clearly good together. But which life will Dawn choose? Is it possible for her to choose both lives?
Fans of Picoult’s work will certainly enjoy this roller coaster of a story, which will help them think about their own lives and how they may have turned out differently than originally planned. And the book will let readers think: if they could, would they choose for their life to turn out differently than it did?
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