The Book of Two Ways

“Life asked death, ‘Why do people love me but hate you? ‘Death responded ‘Because you are a beautiful lie and I am a painful truth.” -Unknown

Prepare for a Crash Landing. Everything changes for Dawn Edelstein when she is on a plane preparing to crash. As the plane goes down her thoughts are on Wyatt Armstrong, a man she loved and last saw 15 years ago, she does not think of her husband Brian or the life they had in Boston with their daughter, Merit.

Dawn is an interesting woman. She gave up her dream of being an Egyptologist, when she received word that her mother was dying, and she needed to leave Egypt and return home. There she had to prepare for her Mother’s death and raise her much younger brother. She had to leave Egypt and Wyatt behind. She meets Brian soon thereafter and the rest as they say, is history. Now a death Douala with a teenage daughter, her universe is about to change.

“My heart is no longer in my body.”

It is obvious from reading this book that a tremendous amount of research went into the writing of this book. There is A LOT of Egyptian history, which I enjoyed at times and other times muddled through it, but all the while I reminded myself that this was her two characters passion. It is what they did. This is what they talked about, it was for one, his life’s work. There is also talk of Quantum physics – parallel universes, etc. Then I was introduced to the career of the Death Douala which blew me away and I found to be very compelling and interesting.

Overall, this was an interesting and entirely different book. Very original with some beautiful passages. Dawn’s story is told through the past and present. We are introduced to those in her life and her relationships with them. This book touches on many themes such as: life, death, choices, the what-ifs, the afterlife, loss and happiness.

This was a hard one to rate because; although interesting, sometimes getting through all the Egyptian history felt like work. She did her research and it showed. When you walk two paths in life, which one do you ultimately choose? Which will Dawn?

“Look, if you had One shot… Or one opportunity… To seize everything, you ever wanted …In one moment… Would you capture it… Or just let it slip?” -Eminem

The Book of Two Ways is both a rewarding and frustrating book. In the end, I am glad I read it and enjoyed it. It did take some work, but I found it to be well worth it. I learned a lot and appreciated the messages about life and death. Some of her passages were quite beautiful. I think this would make an interesting book club book as there is a lot to discuss.

Thank you to Random House Ballantine and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All the thoughts and opinions are my own.