"After my son Kyle Ferriera van Leer declared his major in Egyptology at Yale in 2010, he mentioned the Book of Two Ways in passing. Without knowing a thing about it, I said, "That's a great title for a novel." It was only after he began to explain what it actually was that I realized what I needed to write about - the construct of time, and love, and life, and death"-- Dawn Edelstein is on a plane when she is told to prepare for a crash landing....

From a longtime end-of-life "midwife," a practical guide to navigating the transition from life to death. Fersko-Weiss recounts beautiful stories that show that dying doesn't need to be as bleak and soul-wrenching as we think. It can be meaningful and even life-affirming. The doula approach to death offers opportunities to explore the meaning of life and to convey that meaning through legacy work. Based on the model of care provided by birth doulas,...