When Breath Becomes Air

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 ¨C the brain ¨C and finally into a patient and a new father. What makes life worth living in the face of death? What do you do when when life is catastrophically interrupted? What does it mean to have a child as your own life fades away? 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. SHORTLISTED FOR THE WELLCOME BOOK PRIZE 2017.