The Anatomy of Hope - by Jerome Groopman (Paperback)

About the Book

Since the time of the ancient Greeks, human beings have believed that hope is essential to life. Now, in this groundbreaking book, a Harvard Medical School professor and "New Yorker" staff writer shows readers why.

Book Synopsis

Why do some people find and sustain hope during difficult circumstances, while others do not? What can we learn from those who do, and how is their example applicable to our own lives? The Anatomy of Hope is a journey of inspiring discovery, spanning some thirty years of Dr. Jerome Groopman's practice, during which he encountered many extraordinary people and sought to answer these questions.

This profound exploration begins when Groopman was a medical student, ignorant of the vital role of hope in patients' lives-and it culminates in his remarkable quest to delineate a biology of hope. With appreciation for the human elements and the science, Groopman explains how to distinguish true hope from false hope-and how to gain an honest understanding of the reach and limits of this essential emotion.

Review Quotes

Praise for The Anatomy of Hope

"Provocative and important . . . a book about healing and life . . . Groopman . . . writes with a clear, crisp, unpretentious prose that keeps the reader interested and the pages turning. Like Oliver Sacks and Atul Gawande, he is a master storyteller who uses the examples of real patients to explain the mysteries of medicine."
-Boston Sunday Globe

"The Anatomy of Hope sings with compassion and honesty."
-ANITA DIAMANT

"Here is a man who has seen many deaths and many miracles and who writes about them with vigor and faith in the power of individuals to change their fates and in some power larger than all of us as well."
-Los Angeles Times Book Review

"This book is the guide and the promise that all of us-patients and doctors alike-have been seeking, in the quest for hope amid the trials and fears of illness."
-SHERWIN B. NULAND, M.D.

"The kind of hope-the kind of love-that shines through this book's pages . . . will undoubtedly save many other patients and their families, in body and in spirit."
-The Washington Post Book World

About the Author

Jerome Groopman, M.D., holds the Dina and Raphael Recanati Chair of Medicine at the Harvard Medical School and is the chief of experimental medicine at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. His research has focused on the basic mechanisms of blood disease, cancer, and AIDS. He is a staff writer in medicine and biology for The New Yorker and is the author of two popular books, The Measure of Our Days and Second Opinions, which were the inspiration for the television series Gideon's Crossing. In 2000 he was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. He lives with his wife and three children in Brookline, Massachusetts.