When Breath Becomes Air: The ultimate moving life-and-death story

Paul Kalanithi

Feb 2016 · Random House

About this ebook

**THE MILLION COPY BESTSELLER**

'Rattling. Heartbreaking. Beautiful,' Atul Gawande, bestselling author of Being Mortal

What makes life worth living in the face of death?

At the age of thirty-six, on the verge of completing a decade's training as a neurosurgeon, Paul Kalanithi was diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer. One day he was a doctor treating the dying, the next he was a patient struggling to live.

When Breath Becomes Air chronicles Kalanithi's transformation from a medical student asking what makes a virtuous and meaningful life into a neurosurgeon working in the core of human identity - the brain - and finally into a patient and a new father.

Paul Kalanithi died while working on this profoundly moving book, yet his words live on as a guide to us all. When Breath Becomes Air is a life-affirming reflection on facing our mortality and on the relationship between doctor and patient, from a gifted writer who became both.

'A vital book about dying. Awe-inspiring and exquisite. Obligatory reading for the living' Nigella Lawson

Ratings and reviews

This book must be turned into a film – move aside "The Fault in Our Stars," because this is a genuine love story. However, there were certain aspects in the medical world that I struggled to come to terms with. How can anyone, even a doctor, be tasked with making judgment calls when it involves a fellow human being grappling with life and death?

It's very honest, thoughtful by Dr.Paul Kalanidhi, and will surely leaves mark in the reader as it is also a genuine story of love and sacrifice.

I was worried that this work would be both upsetting and morbid. I found it to be honest & insightful, appealing to the literal side of my understanding. That when faced with terminal illness you can still retain a positive outlook, filling the time you have left with the really important things in life, like love & acceptance of family & striving to achieve alternative goals.

About the author

PAUL KALANITHI was a neurosurgeon and writer. He held degrees in English literature, human biology, and history and philosophy of science and medicine from Stanford and Cambridge universities before graduating from Yale School of Medicine. He also received the American Academy of Neurological Surgery’s highest award for research.

His reflections on doctoring and illness have been published in the New York Times, the Washington Post and the Paris Review Daily.

Kalanithi died in March 2015, aged 37. He is survived by his wife, Lucy, and their daughter, Elizabeth Acadia.