The Book of Two Ways by Jodi Picoult

“The deceased could take either a land route or a water route to get to the field of offerings, which is the ancient Egyptian version of heaven. No matter which path you took, you wound up where you were supposed to be.”

We are all sailing through life just to reach the end. The end, i.e. Death, is the ultimate truth being sought by life. The recent read by Jodi Picoult presented this process of life/living and death/dying through a superb tale of fiction and Egyptology. This book is an homage to an ancient Egyptian coffin text, also called “The Book of Two Ways,” which contains one of the first known maps of the underworld. In Egyptian mythology, Water and Land refer to the “Two Ways,” alternate routes to the afterlife.

The story is told in multiple timelines about a middle-aged woman, Dawn, who works as Death Doula (an interesting profession which I never knew existed!!) …her choices and her way of questioning her life, and the saga of other related persons in her life, viz. her 14-yr daughter Meret and her discomfort with her body, her quantum physicist husband Brian and his steadfastness in his marriage, her colleague-mate at Egypt Wyatt and his facade of confidence, etc. 

The book has a magnitude of the concepts. It has hints of romance, friendship, trust, faith, philosophy and hope. This book shares so much knowledge about our attitudes and fears and the modern-day denial of the inevitability of death, as well as the process of caring for the sick & dying.

The most fascinating was knowing how the ancient Egyptians prepared for death and a rich afterlife through the thorough design of pyramids and stories to be told about their life, from which we could learn much. I learnt that each moment is worth living and dying for, as we never know which moment will be the last one.

The book is cerebral, containing many details about pyramids, coffins, hierarchy, etc., and sometimes dull. Hence, it isn't recommended for those hurrying to finish yet another book. This book is a delight to the reader with patience. She/He shall be rewarded with a happy ending and loads of life learnings.


Quotes from the book-

“Who we are is about not what we do, but why we tell ourselves we do it.”

“How can you enjoy life if you spend every minute fearing the end of it?”

“I believe that there are five things we need to say to people we love before they die, and I give this advice to caregivers: I forgive you. Please forgive me. Thank you. I love you. Goodbye. I tell them that they can interpret those prompts any way they like, and nothing will have been left unsaid.”

“Every beginning is already the start of the end,”

“Maybe in order to grow and become better, part of us has to die to make room for that new thing, Like a broken heart.”