When Breath Becomes Air

By: Paul Kalanithi, Abraham Verghese - introduction

Narrated by: Sunil Malhotra, Cassandra Campbell

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST • OVER TWO MILLION COPIES SOLD

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 Times

ONE 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, BookPage

An Oprah Daily Best Nonfiction Book of the Past Two Decades • A Kirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction Book of the Century

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.

Finalist for the PEN Center USA Literary Award in Creative Nonfiction and the Books for a Better Life Award in Inspirational Memoir

Amazing

you get lost in his words, vsualizing these brief glimpses of a brave soul. Simply beautiful.

powerful

Easy to listen to, and just so damn powerful. I'll be listening to it again shortly.

Compelling and clear

What did you love best about When Breath Becomes Air?

I loved the beauty and I loved the after glow

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

I loved the second half to the book, the first half got a little tedious for me, with all the surgeries and medical data

Any additional comments?

I loved how Lucy epilogue brought her in and the Katie....I have been thinking about it and how it affected my life, I saw how courageous he was.

A book about finding meaning

Where does When Breath Becomes Air rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

1

What did you like best about this story?

the final word of PK to his daughter is pure poetry; it can make a grown man cry.

Have you listened to any of Sunil Malhotra and Cassandra Campbell ’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

No

Any additional comments?

This book will leave you thinking about PK and his family long after you are done. In the end the book is a challenge to us all to find meaning in the world, to forget the ephemera, focus on who and what matters, and find the courage to face our own inevitable mortality.

touching story of surgeon becomes cancer patient

touching story of professional family and end of life experience through cancer care... includes wife's view at end of book which was a good closure

Incredible book!

Beautifully written book. Such a vulnerable and touching story that shines with strength of the human spirit.

Incredible

Incredible story, incredible man and incredible writing. Highly recommend although it is a tear jerker for sure.

...

The balance between work and life is something that seems best answered by those who are in extreme situations like this.

a meaningful life

I found this to be quite moving. the final chapter was all about perfect love.

Raw and rich

Raw with emotions, rich with insight and thought provoking.

Do read if you want to ponder the end to your own life, or the lives of those you love.