The Cost of Hope

FromPulitzer Prize winner Amanda Bennett comes a moving, eye-opening, andbeautifully written memoir, a love story of two unusual people, their complexmarriage and deep devotion, and her quest to save his life.

When Wall Street Journal reporter Amanda Bennett meets the eccentric,infuriating, yet somehow irresistible Terence Bryan Foley while on assignmentin China, the last thing she expects was to marry him. They are sodifferent-classic and bohemian, bow ties and batik, quirky and sensible. ButTerence is persistent. "You are going to be somebody," he tells her. "You'regoing to need somebody to take care of you." Initially as combative as theircourtship, their marriage brings with it stormy passion, deep love and respect,two beloved children, new professional challenges, and a life together over twodecades. Then comes illness, and a journey begins to win a longer life forTerence.

The Cost of Hope chronicles the extraordinary measures Amanda andTerence take to preserve not only Terence's life but also the life of theirfamily. After his death, Bennett uses her skills as a veteran investigativereporter, sorting through medical records and seemingly endless bills, andtalking with doctors, to determine the cost of their mission of hope. What shediscovers raises important questions many people face, and vital issues aboutthe intricacies of America's health care system.

Rich in humor, insight, and candor, The Cost of Hope is an unforgettablememoir, an inspiring personal story that sheds light on one of the mostimportant turning points in life.

AmandaBennett isan executive editor at Bloomberg News, directing special projects andinvestigations, and was the co-chair of the Pulitzer Prize Board. She formerlyserved as editor of The Philadelphia Inquirer, editor of the Herald-Leader(Lexington, Kentucky), managing editor of The Oregonian (Portland,Oregon), and Atlanta bureau chief (among numerous other posts) at The WallStreet Journal. In 1997, Bennett shared the Pulitzer Prize for nationalreporting with her Journal colleagues, and in 2001 she led an Oregonianteam to a Pulitzer for public service. Her previous books include InMemoriam (1997, with Terence B. Foley), The Man Who Stayed Behind (1993,with Sidney Rittenberg), and The Death of the Organization Man (1990).

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Advancepraise for The Cost of Hope

"Here is a book about marriage, love, and hope when there would seem to be noreason to hope. Amanda Bennett describes her lively, complex, never-dull lifewith her husband with a directness that is both understated and heartbreaking,and in the context of his illness and treatment she asks the unanswerable: Whatare the human and economic costs of providing medical treatment when theoutcome is uncertain? Bennett writes beautifully about love and loss, and howthey illuminate one another. Long after one reads it, The Cost of Hope staysin one's heart and mind."-Kay Redfield Jamison, author of An Unquiet Mindand Nothing Was the Same

"A beautiful, brave, funny, vexing, and tender love story-a fight against deathto save a man who was larger than life . . . Hope turns out to be priceless,and enduring."-Dominique Browning, author of Slow Love

"No one who reads this book will ever forget it. It is the moving, funny,heartbreaking, sober, inspiring, important story of a man and a woman energizedto their limits by their stormy high-pitched love for each other. Interwoventhroughout is a brilliant piece of reporting about the costs and agonies of theAmerican healthcare system. Amanda Bennett has created, in beautifully craftedprose, something truly exquisite-and unique."-Jim Lehrer

"In The Cost of Hope, Amanda Bennett powerfully combines her own funny,touching love story with an increasingly frantic dance with American healthcare,raising urgent questions all of us need answered about the delivery and cost ofmedical care in our country. This is an extraordinary, memorable look insidethe life of a loving family facing a terrible diagnosis."-Judy Woodruff

"An enlightening and touching memoir, The Cost of Hope is at once acelebration of Amanda Bennett's life with her husband before and during hisbattle with cancer and a clear-eyed look at end-of-lifedecision-making."-Melissa Fay Greene, author of Praying for Sheetrockand No Biking in the House without a Helmet