#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.
more
A story of strength, courage, and hope.
Getting worse, getting well again and hark work, because there is a why. Family? Yes, the golden treasure of every human being. Live for it and help the people!
Beautifully written account of a physician’s coming to terms with his own tragically premature death.
This book wasn’t my cup of tea. That’s not to say the book is bad; I can easily see how many would find this work touching. I read of an author who worked really hard and whose life was tragically cut short despite having overcome so many hurdles. The ending, through its brevity, really highlighted a shortened lifespan. Although Kalanithi’s lifestory is inspiring, his account of it didn’t hit the mark for me.
A gorgeous tribute to life, and to bravery in the face of death.
Beautifully written book about living gracefully under any circumstance. Life Affirming.
Autobiographical story of the author’s death and how we look at death.
One of the best memoirs I have read. I think we tend to think that doctors are immune to illnesses being physicians, but this book makes you realize that they get sick , too. It’s a sad story, but there’s also hopefulness & passion. And the last part where the wife speaks is heart-rending. A must read for everyone.
WOW – this book will really stay with you
It was interesting And sad. I’m glad he wrote the book.
This moved me to the extreme. How brave is the author that he shared such an intimate and difficult experience!
When Breath Becomes Air’ was written with such tender eloquence and candor by a neurosurgeon, Dr. Paul Kalanithi who faced and ultimately succumbed to metastatic lung cancer. He examined the significance and meaning of life and death both as a physician and a patient but more importantly as a human being who had love, hope and aspirations.
A simple but inspiring story.
Sadly, the author will not be writing another book. I would be interested in a follow up from his wife, a brave widow & mother.
This book is a must-read for anyone. The plot-line kept me captivated throughout the story. Toward the final act, there was an unexpected twist I didn’t see coming,
To this day, I’m still haunted by the overwhelming sadness that consumed me leading up to the end.
New insight from a cancer victim.
Luminous and life-affirming, this is an emotional and heart-breakingly beautiful story about what it means to live in the face of dying. An extraordinary medical memoir.
Breath is air that moves in and out of lungs oxygenating blood and giving life, when a person is no longer alive breath is just air. This is Paul Kalanithi’s powerful memoir, beautifully written as he is racing to finish the story before his breath literally becomes air. Kalanithi is in his final year of the brutal ordeal required to become a neurosurgeon when he is diagnosed with a terminal illness, metastatic lung cancer. Here is a person who has struggled to reach the pinnacle of his life’s goals only to be given a death sentence. He has made the transformation from a college student to a neurosurgeon and along the way earned degrees in literature and the history of medicine. While in training as a surgeon I remember having nightmares of struggling through years of sleepless nights and the stress of learning to operate only to have something happen to stop me from finishing residency. I was lucky–I made it. Reading Kalanithi’s account of his ordeal and the ultimate acceptance of his fate brought me to tears on multiple occasions. The events and decisions leading to his pursuit of a career in medicine and ultimately neurosurgery reveal his great moral character. He poignantly recounts the events surrounding his diagnosis but more importantly, with grace and dignity, also shows the effect it has on his family and associates. His wife, Lucy, posthumously wrote the epilogue. This is an incredible story that should be required reading by all medical students. It is on my list of top five all-time favorite non-fiction books.
An amazing and inspirational story of an incredible man who shares his life and how he faced death.
I can only say thank you for this moving book.
This book was life-affirming even as it talked about a difficult subject: mortality. It was beautifully written and expressed the difficult moments with a poignance I will never forget. This book has stayed with me since I read it.