The King's English Bookshop

This beautifully written and engaging memoir, set in Topanga Canyon, California, and Belize, details a family’s journey from cynicism and fear into faith and healing. In the autumn of 2000, Uzi and Hope Edelman and their 3-year-old daughter Maya are living an emotionally disconnected life. Hope questions her marriage, her profession, and her abilities as a mother. Uzi is laid-back to a fault, with an ‘all-is-good’ attitude that fuels Hope’s worries and self-doubts. Onto the scene drops Dodo, Maya’s disruptive imaginary friend. Dodo escalates the family’s troubles; Maya blames her night terrors and daytime tantrums on Dodo. Carmen, the Edelman’s Nicaraguan housekeeper, is convinced that Maya is possessed by evil spirits. Confused and worried about how to handle Maya and Dodo’s apparent hold on her, Edelman and her husband make the unorthodox choice to bring their daughter to Mayan healers in Belize, hoping that a shaman might help them banish Dodo. The bestselling author of Motherless Daughters, Edelman braids together the trials of motherhood and marriage, a gorgeously narrated Central American travelogue, and an exploration of faith and gratitude. With humor and honesty, Edelman’s storytelling will captivate and inspire those of us who dwell between the ordinary and the extraordinary.