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When Breath Becomes Air
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When Breath Becomes Air
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When Breath Becomes Air
Audiobook5 hours

When Breath Becomes Air

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

4.5/5

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About this audiobook

For listeners of Atul Gawande, Andrew Solomon, and Anne Lamott, 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?

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.

Editor's Note

Unstoppable read…

“When Breath Becomes Air,” written in the last year of Dr. Kalanithi’s life, is an unstoppable read and a moving memoir about coming to terms with death from a man who worked to prevent others’, and then finally faced his own.

LanguageEnglish
Release dateJan 12, 2016
ISBN9780399566172
Unavailable
When Breath Becomes Air

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Reviews for When Breath Becomes Air

Rating: 4.368579804128902 out of 5 stars
4.5/5

1,986 ratings219 reviews

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  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This is an incredibly profound memoir by a neurosurgeon who learns that he is dying of a particularly malicious form of lung cancer. It is deeply philosophical and addresses such questions as 'What is the role of a physician?', 'What is the meaning of life?' and of course 'What is the meaning of death?'. If you know someone with cancer, you should read it for them. If you don't, you should read it for yourself, for the sheer beauty if the author's prose.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    But if I did not know what I wanted, I had learned something, something not found in Hippocrates, Maimonides, or Osler: the physician's duty is not to stave off death or return patients to their old lives, but to take into our arms a patient and family whose lives have disintegrated and work until they can stand back up and face and make sense of, their own existence.Paul Kalanithi was in his last year of neurosurgery residency when he was diagnosed with Stage IV lung cancer. Before medical school Kalanithi had studied English literature and the History of Medicine in his attempt to discover 'what makes life meaningful". After his cancer diagnosis he also set out to understand death better. He explores both these ideas and the relationship between doctors and patients in this memoir. Kalanithi is a skilled writer, his prose is beautiful; it's obvious that he studied literature. As someone who has worked as part of a health care team in a large university research hospital for nearly 30 years I found many truths in Kalanithi's passages about the doctor-patient relationship and the bonds that are forged between all members of the patient care team. I particularly liked the above quote (from pg 166) and the passage on pg 81-82 that describes bonding between members of the care team who can be "clinging to the same raft, caught in the same tide". Kalanithi died before he could finish the book. The epilogue is written by his wife, Lucy Kalanithi. (warning: you will need tissues handy when you read this part)Recommended.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The author is very articulate. His story makes him sound almost saintly. I don't know if this is an accurate representation of the man, but his is a sad story. The book is divided into 2 parts. The first is his adult life before diagnosis, the second is after diagnosis.

    His upbringing seems good, and he didn't have money worries. He was able to go to college and pursue advanced degrees. He tries to be a compassionate doctor and person. His diagnosis is a tragedy. We don't see much of the despair he must have felt upon diagnosis. His writing feels pretty upbeat.

    The only part I teared up on was the ending, written by his wife. The bulk of the book didn't make me feel much. The writing style was too matter of fact.

    Still, a good book and an interesting look at the end of a man's life.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Paul Kalanithi has to be one of the smartest, bravest men I have ever had the opportunity to learn about. While studying and becoming a neurosurgeon/neuroscientist, he learns of becoming afflicted with lung cancer. Paul had entered college studying literature, and was going to become a writer. He decided that his curiosity about death and science prompted him to become a neurosurgeon. This man had such a deep longing to understand the pain, the depth of anguish experienced by someone given a diagnosis of death, that he found he needed to write about his own experience. Unfortunately, he had not finished the book before he was taken. His wife fills in the gap and kudos to her for letting us know her love for him.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Facing the knowledge of his own coming mortality, Dr. Kalanithi takes the reader on a journey from doctor to patient. The majority of the book focuses on Paul's experience as a neurosurgeon but the highlights come when we get glimpses into his mind as he determines what is most important to him when he knows his time is limited. A thought provoking manuscript on what it's like to face your own finality.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    When Breath becomes Air. Paul Kalanithi. 2016. It only took a few hours to read this beautiful book about dying. The author was a highly successful neurosurgeon on the way to a successful career when he was struck with cancer. In this brief book he relates his thoughts on becoming a patient and how to live while he was dying. Kalanithi loved language and literature and was planning getting advance degrees in English until he realized that in addition to literature and philosophy he also needed to know neuroscience to continue his study of what makes us human. His wife, Lucy, concludes the book with a moving epilogue.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    When Breath Becomes Air is heartbreaking.

    A first-person point of view of a life interrupted, and how to continue the trajectory of success when life has other plans.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Thought provoking and sober, but not morbid (in any way). A moving and ultimately inspiring book. Recommended.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The author finds his pursuit of the meaning of life takes a hard turn from theory to reality when cancer brings death up close and personal. I found his meditations on what gives our lives purpose and value thought provoking. A graceful and heartbreaking memoir.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi is a posthumous memoir/biography from a man who was both in the prime of his life and the beginning of what promised to be an illustrious career as a neurosurgeon and neuroscientist. The terminal lung cancer which was already making its way through his spinal column wasn't part of the plan...and yet Paul chose to meet this challenge head-on as a way to understand and learn how the inevitability of death can be explored by those shepherding the way. How does the mind and brain (seen as two separate entities here) play a role in this? He first approached this topic through the lens of literature which he had always been interested in (hence the beginning of the book which would eventually be published after his death) but he then moved on to his direct experience as a doctor and then as a patient. Paul was interested in the bigger picture of what exactly death means and he kept trying to parse it out by asking, "Where did biology, morality, literature, and philosophy intersect?" (pg 41). He didn't shy away from the ugly underbelly of cancer treatment and how it's seen from both a medical professional's standpoint (best practices, proven remedies, etc) and the one receiving the care (uncertainty, despair, anger, and frustration to name a few). Facing mortality and asking the tough questions are the overarching themes of When Breath Becomes Air but this is also a quiet story about a man coming to terms with the fact his life was about to end. I don't want to give away all of the details because I really think you should read this one if you never read another book about death (although why stop here?). I didn't know if I'd be able to continue it at several points (there were tears) because it mirrors so much of what my dear friend, Jessica, went through during her battle with cancer. But I am happy that I persevered. 10/10This quote blew my mind because I feel I'm constantly justifying to people why I do the work that I do even though some of it doesn't compensate me at all (the blog) and the one that does is probably never going to make me financially solvent (children's librarian). Looking at the bigger picture is hard if you are cutting out the crucial bits like death which comes for us all."Indeed, this is how 99 percent of people select their jobs: pay, work, environment, house. But that's the point. Putting lifestyle first is how you find a job - not a calling." - pg 68-69If I remember correctly this was a quote from Paul's wife and I think it perfectly encapsulates why this is such an important book. It's why I've read and reviewed so many books around this topic over the past year. "Paul confronted death - examined it, wrestled with it, accepted it - as a physician and a patient. He wanted to help people understand death and face their mortality. Paul's decision not to avert his eyes from death epitomizes a fortitude we don't celebrate enough in our death-avoidant culture." - pg 215
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Paul Kalanithi was a neurosurgeon, a husband, a lover of literature, and a very ambitious man. Perhaps more than those things, he was a seeker of meaning. Someone who looked at the world with it's complexities and seemingly unrelated parts and asked what it all means and how we should best live.

    Paul's story of medical school, residency, and his life after diagnosis are always interesting, and sometimes inspiring or even humorous. I found myself annoyed at times throughout the first half of the book, feeling like he couldn't simply say something without trying to create a unique metaphorical way to express it. When describing his professional accomplishments, I sometimes felt annoyed at how plainly, almost self-congratulatorily, he told of his success.

    However, I think these things both make perfect sense when you consider that this is a book written by a man whose life had been brought into sharp focus by a cancer diagnosis. As a first time author, he wanted to write something beautiful and true. As a man realizing his life trajectory may have just been cut very short, he could afford to be frank.

    I really enjoyed his book, and I felt sad knowing that the man behind it was no longer living as I read it, but I did not find it sad. The epilogue, however, written by his wife is heartbreaking in its love and earnestness.

    "I expected to feel only empty and heartbroken after Paul died. It never occurred to me that you could love someone the same way after he was gone, that I would continue to feel such love and gratitude alongside the terrible sorrow, the grief so heavy that at times I shiver and moan under the weight of it. Paul is gone, and I miss him acutely nearly every moment, but I somehow feel I'm still taking part in the life we created together."
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Haunting memoir
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Last week one of my city’s neighborhoods had a huge explosion, leveling three businesses and damaging three dozen more. On Friday my husband and I went there to meet up with friends and spread some local economy love, cash-style. We wandered into a (mostly) used bookstore called Couth Buzzard (plywood still covering nearly all of the windows) and this book just jumped out at me. I ended up reading it in one day because I could not put it down.

    Dr. Paul Kalanithi was 36 years old (my age – which, given the subject matter of the book, really drove it home to me) when he was diagnosed with terminal cancer. He and his wife (also a doctor) were sorting out their next steps, as he was basically a superstar, about to finish up the last of his education and essentially write his own career check. Instead of a dream job, he got appointments with an oncologist.

    This is different than other books I’ve read written by people with terminal diagnoses. Dr. Kalanithi majored in English literature and earned a Master of Philosophy before pursuing his medical degree., which translates into a fantastic ability to tell a story. And as dire as those of us who haven’t experienced might imagine his situation to be, the story isn’t exhausting. I didn’t find myself crying during the main part of the book, just during the epilogue, written by his wife, which was lovely and brutal.

    Instead, I found myself thinking. Contemplating. Really trying to figure out how I would handle trying to sort out what to do with my life when I knew it was going to end sooner than I always thought, but not knowing exactly how long that might be. How do you go from looking thirty years in the future to wondering if you have one year, or five, or maximum 10? What would your future look like and how would you sort out your values? If you had one year, maybe you’d quit your job. But what about five?

    The book doesn’t give us answers. There aren’t sweeping statements about how to live your life that you could see stitched on a sampler. I genuinely believe there is a place for books like that, but I think books like this are so needed to.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I received this book as part of LibraryThing Early Reviewers. Written by Paul Kalanithi, a gifted neurosurgeon/writer, this memoir of life and dying is a wonderful reminder to find what is important in life. Paul worked to find meaning in living while dying. A quick and easy read, (which is surprising given the difficult subject matter), this book is written honestly and movingly and will appeal to anyone who enjoys Atul Gawande's work, as well as those who may be interested in finding a way to live in the present. A very well written book.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This is an excellent book, written by a man with great promise and ambition, who discovered he had lung cancer when his life was really just getting going, and who chose to "look death in the eye". For a reader such as me, who has been given a cancer diagnosis, it contains a lot a very valuable insights into what that diagnosis can mean and what might be a useful response. I certainly shed some tears, but it isn't a tear-jerker by any means. We're all going to die, so I reckon most people would benefit from reading this book.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    A moving, yet driven, memoir of a neurosurgeon attempting and managing, in my view, to cope with his forthcoming mortality whilst attempting to understand the drivers taht took him to his vocation, why it drove his wife away intially and finally, how all of his life experiences and illness would affect his daughter. Moving to the point of tears, this at times feels like a well read, dignified mans account of decline but it is more than this, being philosophical, insightful and Frank. An important book. Not one to be missed.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Dr. Paul Kalanithi was a young neurosurgeon at the peak of his career when he was diagnosed with cancer. This book is his thoughts on being both a doctor and a patient. At one point he remarks that doctors have no knowledge of the extent to which they make their patients suffer. A sad truth that he soon learns after becoming the patient himself. There were so many things that he wrote in this book that touched me. It was especially meaningful to me since I have also gone through cancer treatment. One in three people will develop cancer so chances are you or someone you love will also face this illness. However you don't have to have had a brush with cancer to appreciate this book. The fact is we are all going to die and his ruminations on his own mortality are universal to the human experience. What a gift this book is for his daughter. You can finish this book in a few hours but I couldn't bring myself to read his wife Lucy's epilogue for the longest time. It was just too sad. Cancer robbed the world of a brilliant neurosurgeon who would have helped many people over the course of his career. Godspeed Dr. Paul.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Heart-wrenching and beautiful recounting of a brilliant neurosurgeon (and philosopher) who dies at 38 of lung cancer. His description of the frenzied life of a surgeon's residency is countered by the musings of a man facing his own mortality. There are other dualities in the book: doctor/patient, faith/science, powerful/powerless, ego/humility. This book will make you think --and feel.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I WOULD HAVE GIVEN THIS MORE THAN FIVE STARS, IF POSSIBLE. A TRAGEDY THAT THIS PROMISING YOUNG MAN WAS STRIKEN WITH CANCER JUST AS HE WAS ABOUT TO ACHIEVE HIS LIFES GOALS. WELL WRITTEN AND HEART-RENDING.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I give very few 5 star ratings but this book was so well written that I just could not put it down. When Breath Becomes Air is the true story of a neurosurgeon Paul Kalanithi and his role reversal from doctor to patient. To be specific it's a heart wrenching account of a highly successful young doctor with a fantastic future ahead of him but is given a diagnosis of terminal cancer. Eloquent in his own words Dr Paul tells of all his struggles and emotions while battling this terrible disease. He has a keen interest and education in literature and that shines clearly in his words. While this is an extremely sad book it's also inspirational. You learn the life of a chief resident and all the intricacies of dealing with patients and other medical staff. Being a surgeon is truely a calling. The main takeaway from this book is how gracious Paul accepted his fate. Truely an inspiration for everyone. I would highly recommend this book to anyone.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    WHEN BREATH BECOMES AIR already has several thousand reader reviews at Amazon, so what else can I add? Probably not much. It's a hard book to read in the first place, but add to that the fact that I was writing condolences to the families of two old friends, and attended a funeral during the weekend I was reading it, and ... Well, while it is a hard book to read, it also offers some insight and some comfort about the end of life.Paul Kalinithi was only 36 years old when an aggressive cancer took his life, a promising and talented neurosurgeon-neuroscientist. He somehow accepted his fate with grace and hard-won wisdom. Here are a few of his words -"Death comes for all of us. For us, for our patients: it is our fate as living, breathing, metabolizing organisms. Most lives are lived with passivity toward death - it's something that happens to you and those around you."As someone who witnessed death on a regular basis, Kalanithi knew that "death always wins." It's a hard lesson to learn, but I think it's better to learn as much about it as you can. The closer you keep death in front of you during your life, the easier it might be to accept when your own time comes. One of the thing that Paul and his wife, now his widow, learned (and these are Lucy Kalanithi's words) -"... we knew that one trick to managing a terminal illness is to be deeply in love - to be vulnerable, kind, generous, grateful."Indeed. Lucy also shared this, in her Epilogue - "At home in bed a few weeks before he died, I asked him, 'Can you breathe okay with my head on your chest like this?' His answer was, 'It's the only way I know how to breathe.'"This is, no question, a very sad book, being about a talented young man's bright future cut short. But it's also a very brave book, full of wisdom, yearning, and love. Because Paul Kalanithi loved his wife, his new baby, his family, his work - life. But he left it bravely, and he left us this book, a resonating record of his last journey. Highly recommended.- Tim Bazzett, author of the memoir, BOOKLOVER
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This book is simply amazing. The author truly wrote with his life.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The story of neurosurgeon Paul Kalanithi and how he comes to terms with the news that he has terminal lung cancer. How can a young life so full of promise, a young man blessed with intellect and warmness be so cruelly cut short. The story is concluded by his wife Lucy and though the writing is sad and the ending inevitable the way and manner that the author faces his nemesis makes for poignant, thoughtful and sad reading.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I am utterly without words to describe the experience of reading this beautiful book. I resisted this read for a while because I knew it would break my heart. I was right, it did that, but it also filled my heart and my mind and my soul in a way I can't recall any other book having done. It sounds silly to say this is not a book about illness or dying. Certainly in some ways it is that, but it is a truly a book about life, love, family, medicine, literature, intellect, and God (for all my friends who refuse to believe you can embrace science fully and also have deep faith, you need to read this.) Also, it is worth noting that this book is beautifully written. It sounds trite to say this book changed my life, but it did. The world lost a great doctor/author/man in Paul Kalanithi, but should be forever grateful that he spent a portion of his the end of his short time here giving us this book.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    At the age of 36, Dr. Paul Kalanithi is diagnosed with stage four lung cancer, and the life he had before him changes forever. When Breath Becomes Air is divided into four sections. The first section is a foreword by Atul Gawande, the author of Being Mortal. Then, Paul Kalanithi takes over, detailing his life as a neurosurgeon and then narrating his life after his diagnosis. Paul's wife, Lucy, finishes up the book after his death. When Breath Becomes Air has hit many "Best of 2016" books and I can understand why. Many reviewers have praised his lyrical and poetic voice. Still, I didn't find his voice poetic -- just thoughtful and indeed I thought his words were a thorough exploration of what it means to live. And of course, I was left sobbing at the end.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Well-written, heart wrenching biography of a surgeon's journey through medical school, residency, and cancer. He describes parts of his life that you feel that you are actually there, learning a lot about the medical community and the hardships and stress a surgeon has to go through. This continues with his descriptions of his cancer and how it affects him physically and emotionally. It really is a great book.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A clear-eyed journey from surgeon to patient to death. We'll not know what this thoughtful brilliant man could have accomplished as a surgeon, but he certainly lived an important life, as we all do.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Powerful book that has the reader reflecting on death and how we approach the subject. Very moving!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I like this book a lot, and in some ways it is quite a remarkable book. It is well written, and it is poignant that it is written by a dying man. I would normally have expected that the book would have been full of bitter recriminations, about a life cut short in its prime, of potential unfulfilled. There is none of that, and in this it remains a remarkable book. I think that this itself is the most valuable lesson he leaves for us - to live the life, even in death.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    While Kalanithi can come across as a little pretentious at times when describing his education, but his journey through cancer and his wife's epilogue are very moving. Don't forget the tissue!