# When Breath Becomes Air

Canonical: https://www.bookquiver.com/paul-kalanithi/when-breath-becomes-air/9781473523494

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- Book: [When Breath Becomes Air](https://www.bookquiver.com/paul-kalanithi/when-breath-becomes-air) ([When Breath Becomes Air.md](https://www.bookquiver.com/paul-kalanithi/when-breath-becomes-air.md))
- Authors: [Paul Kalanithi](https://www.bookquiver.com/paul-kalanithi)
- Publisher: vintage_digital
- Medium: ebook
- ISBN: 978-14-7352-349-4
- Published: 2016-02-04
- Language: en_GB
- Binding: E-book

## Description

**THE MILLION COPY BESTSELLER** 'Rattling. Heartbreaking. Beautiful,' Atul Gawande, bestselling author of Being Mortal What makes life worth living in the face of death? 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. 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. 'A vital book about dying. Awe-inspiring and exquisite. Obligatory reading for the living' Nigella Lawson