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When Breath Becomes Air
- Narrated by: Sunil Malhotra, Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 5 hrs and 35 mins
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Publisher's Summary
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST • 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?
NAMED ONE OF PASTE’S BEST MEMOIRS OF THE DECADE • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times Book Review • People • NPR • The Washington Post • Slate • Harper’s Bazaar • Time Out New York • Publishers Weekly • BookPage
Finalist for the PEN Center USA Literary Award in Creative Nonfiction and the Books for a Better Life Award in Inspirational Memoir
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.
What the critics say
"Narrator Sunil Malhotra is faithful to the straightforward tone of Paul Kalanithi's memoir.... Cassandra Campbell narrates the epilogue by Kalanithi's wife, recounting his final moments in a smooth, empathetic voice that is certain to bring tears. When Breath Becomes Air may be unsentimental, but it is profoundly affecting." (AudioFile)
“I guarantee that finishing this book and then forgetting about it is simply not an option.... Part of this book’s tremendous impact comes from the obvious fact that its author was such a brilliant polymath. And part comes from the way he conveys what happened to him - passionately working and striving, deferring gratification, waiting to live, learning to die - so well. 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.” (Janet Maslin, The New York Times)
“Paul Kalanithi’s memoir, When Breath Becomes Air, written as he faced a terminal cancer diagnosis, is inherently sad. But it’s an emotional investment well worth making: a moving and thoughtful memoir of family, medicine and literature. It is, despite its grim undertone, accidentally inspiring.” (The Washington Post)
“Devastating and spectacular... [Kalanithi] is so likeable, so relatable, and so humble, that you become immersed in his world and forget where it’s all heading.” (USA Today)
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What listeners say about When Breath Becomes Air
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- E. Trenholm
- 2019-11-01
Just right
Pro: excellent portrayal of death by cancer.
Con: the readers voice was electronically enhanced so this audio book can sound like a computerized voice is reading it at times.
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- Joel A Richard
- 2019-11-03
Poetic. Emotional. Inspiring.
A doctor's courageous portrayal of his battle with, and eventual loss to, terminal illness. His background in English literature shines through in the beautifully woven, almost lyrical, prose; and frequent poetry citations.
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- Diane from Calgary
- 2019-05-23
Descriptive but not relating internal process
Found worth reading but missing depth of process experienced. Felt reading an analysis of experience.
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- Med
- 2022-11-27
One of the best books I read this year (2022)
Kalanithi's book moved me to the core. I cried a lot when in his final moments with his wife and family said 'I am ready' and took off the oxygen mask. Rest in peace Paul. Your legacy and your love is still with us. When Breath Becomes Air will radically change your outlook on life, meaning, and death.
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- Annelisa Fischer
- 2023-10-31
the best book I've ever read
I am so blessed to have had the opportunity to listen to this book. I have now suggested it to all my friends and family
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Overall
- Sarah
- 2021-12-14
amazing!
a powerful message from a family going through disease together . A perspective of someone living with terminal illness. a good read if you need a reminder to be grateful for each day 💕 shit could be worse
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- Michael B Rosmer
- 2023-02-26
Brilliant important work
One of the most profound books I've read
Deeply grounded and insightful exploration of the meaning of life given gravity by the journey he is going through while writing and how you know it ends.
I haven't read a book like it since Wind, Sand, and Stars.
Highly recommend!
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- Linda
- 2023-05-24
Beautifully moving.
Written with the kind of sharing that makes you want to continue through every page. How sad that the world lost such an amazing human. My heart goes out to his family. They lost someone very special indeed.
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- Anonymous User
- 2024-02-23
A Must Read
This was an absolutely beautiful and painful book, a must read for anyone in healthcare for sure. I thoroughly enjoyed every page and will take away a lot of wisdom from this book. Don't read or listen in a public place if you are prone to tears ... I balled my eyes out often.
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- Leigh
- 2019-02-08
Very insightful and emotional.
The narrator was terrific. I have a hard time reading, so it was delightful to be able to enjoy such a compelling book in audio format.
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