The Book of Two Ways

Dawn lands at the airport in Cairo, and hires a taxi to take her to Ramses train station. She is going to Middle Egypt. As she travels, she remembers how she fell in love with Egyptology as a child, a passion that led her to Yale’s Egyptology program. Dawn’s doctoral field was the Book of Two Ways, a map painted inside ancient Egyptian coffins to guide the occupant to the afterlife. Unlike the conventional understanding of the map, Dawn theorizes that its position is equally important as the content. 

Dawn is going to Deir el-Bersha, a necropolis on the Nile, where she spent three seasons as a student at a dig site. At the Dig House, she is met by the caretaker, Harbi, who she remembers from her time there. He remembers her, too, from when he was a child, and leads her into the kitchen for breakfast. While the house is the same as she remembers, the archaeology equipment has changed from paper to digital. There is a printout of her own drawings, with Wyatt’s translations, on the wall. Harbi assumes Dawn is staying, and she agrees.

The first time Dawn met Wyatt Armstrong was at Yale, where he was winning a drinking contest. She was not impressed by him, assuming that he was there as a legacy, the child of a Yale graduate, instead of a serious student. When he introduced himself at the bar, he looked over her books on Egyptology, but she left with the impression that he was a shallow snob.

The next morning, Dawn attended a meeting with the head of the Egyptology department, Ian Dumphries. Wyatt came into the room late, and she realized that he was an Egyptology student. Further, he was studying the Coffin Texts, one of which is the Book of Two Ways, Dawn’s area of interest. Dawn was young, but a chapter of her dissertation has already been published, part of the reason that Yale accepted her. Wyatt had read the article, and upon finding out that she is the author, became distant and unfriendly.

They avoided each other until a trip to see a new exhibit about the Book of Two Ways, an illustrated map, painted inside the coffin, showing two paths to the Netherworld. Wyatt and Dawn shepherded undergraduate students through the exhibit, reading and translating the hieroglyphics. Together they studied the Book of Two Ways painted on the inside of a coffin. Dawn argued for her theory about the importance of the paintings’ placements, but Wyatt pushed back, making her angry.

In the present, Dawn waits at the Dig House for the staff to return, including Wyatt, who took over as director when Ian Dumphries retired. She should call home, but instead looks through the archive, reading archaeology journals and catching up on Wyatt’s career. For the past 15 years, he has been looking for the tomb which they discovered a reference to when they were students. She also discovers that he had cited her work in his dissertation, agreeing with her theories in the end. Dawn remembers that in July of 2003, 15 years earlier, she had been on her third trip to Deir el-Bersha. Although she and Wyatt were still adversarial, over time, they developed a tenuous friendship. While she is reading, Wyatt returns to the Dig House, and is shocked to find her there. She tells him that she wants to work at the dig with him.

When Dawn returns home to Boston, her husband, Brian, is relieved; he had thought that she wasn’t coming home at all. She goes upstairs to see her daughter, Meret, who asks her to stay until she falls asleep.

The last time Dawn was in Egypt, she found out that her mother had cancer, but had hidden the diagnosis from Dawn and her brother, Kieran. She left the dig to take care of Kieran, who was 13 at the time, and spend time with her mother in hospice. After her mother’s death, Dawn left her degree program at Yale and stayed home with Kieran. She took a job at the hospice where her mother had died, and eventually became a death doula. Dawn met Brian, at the hospice, where his grandmother was also staying. They became friends over time, and eventually began dating.

The morning after Dawn returns, Brian cancels a presentation at a physics conference, not wanting to leave when they are struggling in their marriage. Brian has been helping out one of his doctoral students, who is young, beautiful, and clearly attracted to him. Although they are not sleeping together, which Dawn believes, she is still angry and sees their connection as a betrayal. Dawn and Brian have sex, an attempt to reconnect, but it does not soothe her worries. 

Dawn has a new client to meet. Winifred Morse, or Win, has ovarian cancer, and shares the same birthday with Dawn. Win’s husband, Felix, answers the door, and Dawn asks how he is; as Win’s caregiver, Dawn is concerned with his wellbeing, too. Win is an artist, although she has not been painting since her diagnosis. She is charismatic, and she and Dawn get along well from the beginning. They spend their first meeting talking about what she, as a death doula, can do for them, and they tell her the story of how they met. Afterward, Dawn drives to the shore and, looking at the ocean, thinks of her mother.

Dawn’s daughter, Meret, is interested in science and is a great student. She struggles with body image issues, however, and with making friends. When Meret gets home from a friend’s house that night, she is upset about her weight until Dawn gets her talking about science, and then she becomes excited. Meret is worried about an invitation to go swimming, which will involve being seen in a bathing suit. She struggles with both of her parents being very thin, and always feeling like an outsider. Dawn and Brian try to have a regular dinner, but their problems surface again.