#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST • This inspiring, exquisitely observed memoir finds hope and beauty in the face of insurmountable odds as an idealistic young neurosurgeon attempts to answer the question What makes a life worth living? NAMED ONE OF PASTE’S BEST MEMOIRS OF THE DECADE • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times Book Review • People • NPR … OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times Book Review • People • NPR • The Washington Post • Slate • Harper’s Bazaar • Time Out New York • Publishers Weekly • BookPage
Finalist for the PEN Center USA Literary Award in Creative Nonfiction and the Books for a Better Life Award in Inspirational Memoir
At the age of thirty-six, on the verge of completing a decade’s worth of training as a neurosurgeon, Paul Kalanithi was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. One day he was a doctor treating the dying, and the next he was a patient struggling to live. And just like that, the future he and his wife had imagined evaporated. When Breath Becomes Air chronicles Kalanithi’s transformation from a naïve medical student “possessed,” as he wrote, “by the question of what, given that all organisms die, makes a virtuous and meaningful life” into a neurosurgeon at Stanford working in the brain, the most critical place for human identity, and finally into a patient and new father confronting his own mortality.
What makes life worth living in the face of death? What do you do when the future, no longer a ladder toward your goals in life, flattens out into a perpetual present? What does it mean to have a child, to nurture a new life as another fades away? These are some of the questions Kalanithi wrestles with in this profoundly moving, exquisitely observed memoir.
Paul Kalanithi died in March 2015, while working on this book, yet his words live on as a guide and a gift to us all. “I began to realize that coming face to face with my own mortality, in a sense, had changed nothing and everything,” he wrote. “Seven words from Samuel Beckett began to repeat in my head: ‘I can’t go on. I’ll go on.’” When Breath Becomes Air is an unforgettable, life-affirming reflection on the challenge of facing death and on the relationship between doctor and patient, from a brilliant writer who became both.
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Very honest and human story.
Hearteltbasnd heartwrenching
I love this book so much. To the extent that I’m thinking of anyone I can to forward this awesome deal to!
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A beautifully written, warm and sad sharing of his life as a neurosurgeon and husband and friend. That he could share so well of himself when he had such crisis facing him.
Heart-breakingly tragic, yet informative. Story of a life cut short way too soon.
True o
Picture of life’s curve balls!
This is a book written for those facing difficult decisions related to the physical body and the possible end of life. The author, a surgeon whose own father was a surgeon faced with end-of-life issues, gives good information regarding decisions that must be made . We often expect the impossible from doctors. If we understand better what the outcomes of our decisions are likely to be , and what is most important to us, then we are more likely to make a proper decision. It is also helpful for anyone who wants to be prepared before these issues come up.
The afterword written by the wife was the most moving part of the book. It was poignant and lyrical.
Very moving. I have been dealing with lymphoma and that’s why this book appealed to me.
Looks at life from a perspective otherwise unknown forming a paradigm otherwise not one’s own. Interesting, touching, and very real. Deep but simple.
heartbreaking , beautiful, very inspirational. Makes your heart feel good because of this man’s bravery, love, humanity.
A must read for all !!!! Great insight into end of life medical care and the choices we all must learn to make. Heartbreaking for the author and his family but truly this book is a gift to all who read it. I have recommended it to many of our friends and always get a thank you once they have read it.
Excellent! I couldn’t put it down til it was finished.
He had it all. Brains, education, beautiful wife, a promising future in which he could contribute so much to society, but tragically his cancer could not be cured. This is a journey through a wrenching time in a young man’s life. I have thought about this many, many times since having read it.
Excellent book. I read it a few months ago so memory is a little fuzzy but I would heartily recommend it. A young doctor who is diagnosed with a terminal illness takes on the task of writing about the end of his own life. A really good read.
Gripping book about facing mortality.
Amazing book”
Unbelievable book -life
This is one of the most moving and inspiring books I have ever read, everyone needs to read this!