In The Possibility of Everything, Hope Edelman chronicles a weeklong family vacation in Central America with a three year old daughter who has recently become attached to a very negative imaginary friend, Dodo, who is blamed for Maya's acting out which is also a recent development in the household. Impetuous, strong-willed Maya has always been vivacious and full of questions and imagination but now she hits and throws tantrums and tells her mom that Dodo doesn't like Mommy and tells her not to do things. Just before their planned vacation, Maya comes down with the croup, a common enough occurrence that they have Maya's recuperation planned to a science. Things go awry when Maya screams that Dodo doesn't want Maya to get better. Ration and logic based Hope is at wit's end trying to figure out what is going on with Maya. Her husband Uzi is more open in his thinking and wonders if Dodo is more than just imagination. Hope struggles with this thought process throughout the months preceding the trip but certain events point to Uzi's thoughts not being utterly ridiculous. Maya's Costa Rican nanny, who has a devout spiritual side, gives Hope instructions on how to get rid of Dodo. When Hope does as instructed, Dodo disappears for a few days before coming back stronger and inspiring more rebellion in Maya. Against her normal logic, Hope agrees to take Maya to a shaman when they arrive in Guatemala. Their appointment with a well known shaman falls through with their less than reliable flight service delaying them almost two days. When they visit another, Maya's reaction to his treatment is so intense that Hope flees with Maya, angering Uzi and again bringing Dodo back front and center.

Edelman writes with an almost hypnotically simple eloquence that had me hanging onto her words and her descriptions of their beautiful travels throughout. I am unfortunately disinterested in much history lately, much to my chagrin, but I found myself googling the places she mentioned and the history of them and being fascinated. She tells the story of her struggle through this situation, interspersing details of the visits, people they met on the journey and relaying her own motherless years after losing her mother to cancer as a teen. All in all, a beautifully written memoir that inspires approaching things with an open mind and not closing yourself off to beliefs out of your realm of comprehension.