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When Breath Becomes Air

The powerful and moving memoir of a doctor, the global bestseller

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When Breath Becomes Air

By: Paul Kalanithi
Narrated by: Sunil Malhotra, Lucy Kalanithi
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Brought to you by Penguin.

THE NEW YORK TIMES NUMBER ONE BESTSELLER

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.

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.

'Finishing this book and then forgetting about it is simply not an option...Unmissable' New York Times

© Paul Kalanithi 2016 (P) Penguin Audio 2016

 Cancer Death & Dying Grief & Loss Medical Personal Development Physical Illness & Disease Professionals & Academics Relationships Sociology Thought-Provoking Heartfelt Inspiring Surgery Medicine
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Critic reviews

A vital book about dying. Awe-inspiring and exquisite. Obligatory reading for the living. (Nigella Lawson)
Rattling. Heartbreaking. Beautiful. (Atul Gawande, author of BEING MORTAL)
Powerful and poignant.
Extraordinary...Remarkable... luminous, revelatory memoir about mortality and what makes being alive meaningful ... Lyrical, intimate, insistent and profound. Kalanithi had the mind of the polymath and the ear of a poet.
A stark, fascinating, well-written and heroic memoir. (Stefanie Marsh)
Exceptional. (Katie Law)
When I came to the end of the last flawless paragraph of When Breath Becomes Air, all I could do was turn to the first page and read the whole thing again. Searingly intelligent, beautifully written, and beyond brave, I haven't been so marked by a book in years. (Gabriel Weston, author of DIRECT RED)
A meditation on what makes a life worth living.
A powerful and compelling read.

Dr Kalanithi describes, clearly and simply, and entirely without self-pity, his journey from innocent medical student to professionally detached and all-powerful neurosurgeon to helpless patient, dying from cancer. He learns lessons about the reality of illness and the doctor-patient relationship that most doctors only learn in old age but Paul Kalanithi died at the tragically early age of 37.

Every doctor should read this book - written by a member of our own tribe, it helps us understand and overcome the barriers we all erect between ourselves and our patients as soon as we are out of medical school
All stars
Most relevant
Moving in 'real time' this book shares the intimacy of terminal illness without drama or pathos.
A superb account of a personal experience that captures fear, hope and love.

Fear hope and love

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we all should face it, lets face it now. death is a truth of life that we shall learn how to deal with it, as we do not know when it is coming.

Sad but eye opening story.

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Amazingly written so inspirational. This is such a powerful book.
May Paul rest in peace

Beautiful story

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I picked up the book in the midst of my army serving. And unable to concentrate because of the situation i was in i let it go not knowing what i was missing out. Finally i finished it and oh boy i loved every second. The writer is amazing. The voices of the readers clean and full of life. You shall not regret buying this book

Truly loved it.

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Was listening this title while got the message an in-laws is going to be operated by a neurosurgeon due to a brain tumor. The storyline made one appreciate life more and understood the sacrifice the neurosurgeons made.

Makes you appreciate life more

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