When Breath Becomes Air
Rs. 2,290.00
Paul Kalanithi
- Selected as a Book of the Year by the New York Times, Evening Standard, Observer, Sunday Times, Mail on Sunday and The Economist
- THE NEW YORK TIMES NUMBER ONE BESTSELLER
- THE SUNDAY TIMES NUMBER ONE BESTSELLER
- Goodreads Choice Award for Memoir & Autobiography (2016)
- Pulitzer Prize Nominee for Biography or Autobiography (2017)
- Wellcome Book Prize Nominee (2017)
- Waterstones Book of the Year Nominee (2016)
- Jan Michalski Prize Nominee for Longlist (2017)
“Rattling. Heartbreaking. Beautiful.” (Atul Gawande, author of BEING MORTAL)
“A vital book about dying. Awe-inspiring and exquisite. Obligatory reading for the living.“ (Nigella Lawson)
“Paul Kalanithi’s memoir, When Breath Becomes Air… split my head open with its beauty. Truly. Madly. Deeply.” (Cheryl Strayed, author of WILD)
“It turns out not really to be about dying at all but about life and how to live it ― though the closeness of death gives it an urgency and economy… When Breath Becomes Air is a Renaissance book from a Renaissance man. It is a work of philosophy and morality, a reconciliation of science and religion. There is even plot and excitement… It was only with the restrained, elegant epilogue written by his wife Lucy Kalanithi that I found myself weeping helplessly… When Breath Becomes Air tells us what means to live a good life, by giving us a glimpse into an exceptional one.” (Lucy Kellaway Financial Times)
“A tremendous book, crackling with life, animated by wonder and by the question of how we should live. Paul Kalanithi lived and died in the pursuit of excellence, and by this testimonial, he achieved it.” (Gavin Francis, author of Adventures in Human Being)
“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)
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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.
About the Author
Paul Kalanithi was a neurosurgeon and writer. He held degrees in English literature, human biology, and history and philosophy of science and medicine from Stanford and Cambridge universities before graduating from Yale School of Medicine. He also received the American Academy of Neurological Surgery’s highest award for research.
His reflections on doctoring and illness have been published in the New York Times, the Washington Post and the Paris Review Daily.
Kalanithi died in March 2015, aged 37. He is survived by his wife, Lucy, and their daughter, Elizabeth Acadia.
Book Specifications
Title: When Breath Becomes Air
Author: Paul Kalanithi
Language: English
Binding: Hardcover
Pages: 256
Published Year: 2016
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 9781847923677
Dimensions: 12.9 x 1.6 x 19.8 cm
Print size: Please feel free to drop us a message.
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