Tackling the agonizing transition from skilled surgeon to bewildered patient, When Breath Becomes Air is an unflinching account of what it means to be betrayed by the body you devoted your life to understanding.
The New York Times number-one best seller.
At the age of 36, 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 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.
***
[IT OCCURS TO ME, as I write this, that the foreword of this book might be better thought of as an afterword]***
(Random House Audiobooks, 10 March 2016, 5 hours 35 minutes, audiobook, #popsugarreadingchallenge 2019, a book published posthumously, bought from @audibleuk, narrated by Cassandra Campbell and Sunil Malhotra)
***
***
This is a very moving story about one person's struggle to hold onto life, love and their sense of identity when they're diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. I found this memoir incredibly sad but a bit cynical at times. I really struggled with Paul continuing to perform surgery after his diagnosis as his health deteriorates. I understood why he wanted to hold onto his idea of himself for as long as possible. I just felt concerned his cancer may affect his ability to do his job and put patients at risk however unintentional. The epilogue, read by his wife was heart-breaking. I feel privileged Paul shard this personal and moving story.
