#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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A book to be cherished, to be read again, to be kept nearby to pick up and open anywhere for the beauty, courage, inspiration, and wisdom that fills every word.
On his way to completing his residency in neurosurgery, he and his wife, also a physician, are startled with Kalanithi’s diagnosis of lung cancer. However, the disease itself is not the focus of this memoir. Kalanithi shares with us the transitions he felt growing inside himself as a husband, father, and yes, physician as he journeyed through his own surgeries and treatments. It was as if he had dual vision seeing everything through the eyes of a physician and a patient.
Lyrically written with philosophical thematics, Kalanithi grasps the changing days of his life with both hands and shifts his focus from professional to familial. As a patient being treated by other physicians, his insights into what is important about treating his patients becomes a similar focus for his family life. This is what he hopes to pass along to his readers.
Not to read Kalanithi’s memoir is a loss, in my opinion, for those who pass it by. Passages include sadness, tragedy, and loss of various kinds. Yet, Kalanithi also shows us wisdom, wit, and beautiful language in telling his story. I highly recommend
I highly recommend this memoir to those who enjoy reading the genre, especially for those interested in writing memoir, and to those who are either beginning a similar journey or have someone in their lives who is.
An insightful, beautifully written memoir by a a fatally ill, brilliant young neuro surgeon struggling to come to terms with life and death long before he planned.
WARNING: This book will rip your heart out.
But read it anyway.
I can’t believe I clicked ‘unpredictable’ on a book that should be the most predictable thing I’ve read. He’s dying of cancer. We all know how that turns out. And yet, reading his life’s story, I had no idea what would come next. I went along for the ride and I’m so glad I did.
Although ultimately tragic, the book was so well-written and really made you feel as though you truly knew the characters personally. I couldn’ t wait to turn each page, and read the entire book overnight. I do recommend it highly. The book spent a long time on the best sellers list and deservedly so. I wanted to read it for over a year, and it was worth waiting for—- a treat from me to me.
Did not like the author as a person. Read “Being Mortal” for a much better take on dying.
It was a wonderful story, however, sometimes there was to much info on the day to day, this is where it dragged a bit. It’s because it was medical so I would skip those parts. Otherwise, I loved it!
This book caused me to think about my own ideas about death and dying. I took this to my book club and it illicited lots of thought provoking conversation. Whether my friends liked it or not, everyone was glad they read it.
Worth the read to see how someone so smart and dedicated to their profession uses their knowledge and training to deal with a truly tragic personal event.
A book where I actually had tears—–story of a young medical student —who after years of study—-was diagnosed with a fatal disease—-instead of giving up—he decided to write about his thoughts and feelings—-sadly, he was not able to finish the book. A true story of a very courageous man and his loving wife.
Marvelous non-fiction book written by a doctor dying from cancer. He looks at death and dying in a new light. The book moved me to tears, and showed me what true courage looks like. Beautiful.
Amazing, well written!
I am not usually the nonfiction type of person. I don’t read memoirs or biographies or histories. Someone recommended this book to me, though, and I felt the large, unretractable urge to read it. Something about its title brought me in. When Breath Becomes Air. Maybe it’s because of the fact that I have asthma, so the semblance of not being able to breathe really speaks to me. Whatever it was, I am so glad that I decided to read it.
Paul’s life began with the question that many of us have: what makes life meaningful? He started in English and then went into med school, which is the opposite of how I ended up (I started as a premed major and finished in English). He wrote so compassionately about everything that he had experienced. His emotions and language and heart really touched me.
Overall, the book was super enjoyable even if you tend to only read fiction. It was written with true emotion, and that is oftentimes so very hard to find.
Favorite quote: “Science may provide the most useful way to organize empirical, reproducible data, but its power to do so is predicated on its inability to grasp the most central aspects of human life: hope, fear, love, hate, beauty, envy, honor, weakness, striving, suffering, virtue.”
I’m glad I read it even though the ending was not what I wanted to happen.
I’m 66 years old, have been an avid reader all of my life, and this is the number one book I would recommend to anyone to read above all others. It is a true accounting from a doctor who found the meaning of life here on this planet, through his healing of his patients and his own unfortunate and untimely fatal disease. Although it may appear morbid, this book’s pages are filled with words that will uplift even the most jaded of us all.
Paul has gotten his wish to come true to become a writer while also “struggling” in his his neurosurgeon practice. In search for his true passion of writing, the life that he was in was a blessing in disguise as his life parts away with a shocking news of lung cancer, thus letting him to write inevitably, and spell bounded us with a remarkable story, truly touching.
Amazing books! Great writing by Paul Kalanithi as he proceeds toward the end of his life, sharing his feelings about his diagnosis and his reaction as an excellent doctor, just reaching his prime when he gets his diagnosis.
A very valiant man!
What a gifted writer and a heart wrenching story. In today’s world of alternative realities, real live realities are so much more compelling.
Everyone should read this book.