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#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?“Unmissable . . . Finishing this book and then forgetting about it is simply not an option.”—Janet Maslin, The New York TimesONE 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, BookPageA Kirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction Book of the CenturyAt 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
This book would be extremely hard for me to categorize.Let me address the obvious first - the superficial structure of the book covers the chronology of an exceptional young man's life, his childhood, his ascension through levels of academic and medical training, culminating in a career as a Neurosurgeon. It is then here, on the cusp of fully manifesting all the years of effort, that young Dr. Kalanithi is confronted with a diagnosis of cancer...ultimately proving to be terminal.Of course I expected this book to be powerful and heart-stirring, but in truth I imagined a much more conventional, "appreciate what you have, stop and smell the roses" sort of missive that we've oft seen before.This book is something very different indeed.Though I never had the pleasure of meeting the brilliant Dr. Kalanithi, and while I fully acknowledge how presumptuous this might sound, I honestly left this book feeling as if I'd just experienced Dr. Kalanithi's crowning achievement. My honest thought was: this man was born to write this book.The Doctor's account of his early life depicts a young man with a sort of dreamy, very rich inner world. This young man would grow to possess an abounding love of philosophy, poetry and literature. Despite coming from a family of doctors, young Paul seemed destined for the life of a novelist.Perhaps the defining and inspiring characteristic of the author is a relentless, uncompromising curiosity. "Why am I alive? What is life all about?" These are the questions the author bravely confronts even as a very young man.As Paul's search for meaning leads him to the very place where these questions arise from, i.e. the brain itself, Paul realizes his quest is leading him into medicine.This reflects a trend we see throughout Paul's life that long precedes his cancer diagnosis. Throughout his life, Paul exhibits the focused drive of an Arthurian Grail Knight. When the road deviates, Paul continues forward unblinkingly. It sets a positive and powerful example.There is much more here too.There is also an incredible, overwhelming sweetness in Paul's marriage and family. There are dizzying heights and gut-wrenching lows.Through it all though, a simple and clear message, taught more through deed than word echoes: hope, salvation, renewal and healing all exist in myriad forms for all of us. In opening our hearts to one another, sharing one another's joys and sorrows, and perhaps most of all, opening our heart to what life places before us and embracing challenges with courage and dignity we will all find our own path to meaning and purpose.This book is, above all, deeply real and human. It offers a brilliantly clear window, through one family's experiences, into a life we all share, i.e. a life that is both finite and yet demanding of us to find our purpose within it.
