When Breath Becomes Air

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

Paul Kalanithi (author)

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.

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Vintage; 1st edition (5 Jan. 2017)
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 256 pages
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 9781784701994
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 12.9 x 1.6 x 19.8 cm