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When Breath Becomes Air

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When Breath Becomes Air

By: Paul Kalanithi
Narrated by: Sunil Malhotra, Lucy Kalanithi
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About this listen

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 South Asian Creators Thought-Provoking Heartfelt Inspiring Surgery Medicine

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)
A great, indelible book ... as intimate and illuminating as Atul Gawande’s “Being Mortal,” to cite only one recent example of a doctor’s book that has had exceptionally wide appeal ... I guarantee that finishing this book and then forgetting about it is simply not an option ... gripping from the start ... None of it is maudlin. Nothing is exaggerated. As he wrote to a friend: “It’s just tragic enough and just imaginable enough.” And just important enough to be unmissable.
Powerful and poignant.
Less a memoir than a reflection on life and purpose… A vital book.
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.
Powerful and poignant… Elegantly written posthumous memoir… Should be compulsory for anyone who intends to be a doctor… A profound reflection on the meaning of life.
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)
All stars
Most relevant
I would recommend this book to anyone who is

A) thinking of joining the medical profession
B) currently deals with patients in any professional capacity.
C) is currently or has been a patient
This book truly is a gift and a reminder of our shared humanity. Thank you to Paul & his family for writing about and sharing their very personal experiences and to the buyers at Audible/ Amazon for making it available in this format. My life is the richer for it.

My book of the year

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Author was a deep thinker. It was sad but interesting to hear his take on suffering & grief & loss. It was scary though to have revealed how little care he took of his body when he was younger. There was no credence given to a healthy, well balanced life style. That is something I see in so many left brain, Medico types. He & his oncologist & wife seemed to value toxic therapies whose side effects some of which ( not all) seemed worse than the progressing cancer”s effects. He seemed to value extension of life over quality; although he did make clear in the book that as long as he was not cognitively impaired & could be a deep thinker, that for him personally his life held meaning. It was for me like a clear dis-announcing of the body. No recognition of what a wise & profound thing nature had evolved in creating the body. No honouring of its basic needs. No credence given to its potential to self heal given an optimum,self healing environment, nourishment & rest. It was as if his body was his enemy to be fought against with science as his weapon. I did gain insights reading this personal story of tragedy, but not the ones I was expecting or hoping for. He sounded like a beautiful soul - but I feel somewhere in life he lost his sense of connectedness to the profundity of nature, to nurturing instead of battling. In his deep philosophising he never uttered recognition of nurturing himself versus pushing himself. He was a brave, noble warrior. Worth a read.

This guy was on a different wave length to me. Worth a read.

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A very special book that is more than the culmination of its words on a page.

That, that was something else.

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This book is so well written. It has helped me in so many ways. Thank you

Brilliant, emotional, needed

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Well narrated and in turn heart warming and breaking. I think I may read it again.

Beautiful, deep and tragic

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