In the autumn of 2000, Hope Edelman was a woman adrift, questioning her marriage, her profession, and her place in the larger world. Feeling vulnerable and isolated, she was primed for change. Into her stagnant routine dropped Dodo, her three-year-old daughter Maya's curiously disruptive imaginary friend. Confused and worried about how to handle Dodo's apparent hold on their daughter, Edelman and her husband made the unlikely choice to take her to Maya healers in Belize, hoping that a shaman might help them banish Dodo-and, as they came to understand, all he represented-from their lives.

An account of how an otherwise mainstream mother and wife finds herself making an extremely unorthodox choice, The Possibility of Everything chronicles the magical week in Central America that transformed Edelman from a person whose past had led her to believe only in the visible and the "proven" to someone open to the idea of larger, unseen forces. This deeply affecting, beautifully written memoir of a family's emotional journey explores what Edelman and her husband went looking for in the jungle and what they ultimately discovered-as parents, as spouses, and as ordinary people-about the things that possess and destroy, or that can heal us all.

Drawing from her own experience and the recollections of over seventy other granddaughters, Edelman explores the three-generation triangle from which women develop their female identities: the grandmother-mother-daughter relationship. With eloquent personal testimony, she demonstrates the vital roles grandmothers have played in their granddaughters' lives, as a source of unconditional love, family values and traditions, and backup parent, the ultimate safety net.

Here are grandmothers in all their glory: The "Benevolent Manipulator," whose love for her family is matched only by her desire for control; The "Gentle Giant," awesome, respected, who possesses a quiet, behind-the-scenes power; The "Autocrat," who rules her extended family like a despot; The "Kinkeeper," the family hub, who offers a sense of cohesion to the extended clan.

With insight and compassion, Edelman probes this unique and emotionally-charged relationship in a book that is a true celebration of an extraordinary bond--and a must read for every woman.