When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi

When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST * OVER TWO MILLION COPIES SOLD

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?

"Unmissable . . . Finishing this book and then forgetting about it is simply not an option."--Janet Maslin, The New York Times

ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New York Times Book Review, People, NPR, The Washington Post, Slate, Harper's Bazaar, Time Out New York, Publishers Weekly, BookPage

An Oprah Daily Best Nonfiction Book of the Past Two Decades * A Kirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction Book of the Century

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.

Finalist for the PEN Center USA Literary Award in Creative Nonfiction and the Books for a Better Life Award in Inspirational Memoir

Paul Kalanithi was a neurosurgeon who also dabbled in writing. He grew up in Kingman, Arizona, and earned a BA and MA in English literature, as well as a BA in human biology, from Stanford University. He received an MPhil from the University of Cambridge in the history and philosophy of science and medicine, and he graduated with honors from Yale School of Medicine, where he was accepted into the Alpha Omega Alpha national medical honor organization. He returned to Stanford to complete his neurological surgery residency and a postdoctoral fellowship in neuroscience, at which time he was awarded the American Academy of Neurological Surgery's top research honor. In March of 2015, he passed away. His huge, loving family, which includes his wife, Lucy, and their daughter, Elizabeth Acadia, survives him.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780812988406
ISBN 10	081298840X
Title	When Breath Becomes Air
Author	Paul Kalanithi
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Hardback
Publisher	Random House USA Inc
Year published	2016-01-12
Number of pages	256
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.