The book was first published in hardback on December 23, 2003 through Random House and deals with the subject of hope and its effect on illnesses.

[1] In the book Groopman investigates how hope affects human beings that are either undergoing medical care or have a family member that is critically ill.

[3][4] The New York Times praised Groopman for never definitively defining hope in the book, as they felt that this made the work succeed that much more in making its point.

[5] In 2007 HBO began work on a television series based upon the book with screenwriters Rafael Yglesias and Tom Schulman.

[6] A pilot episode was created and starred John Ortiz, Simon Callow, and Valarie Pettiford, but the series was never picked up.