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When Breath Becomes Air
- Narrated by: Sunil Malhotra, Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 5 hrs and 35 mins
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Being Mortal
- Medicine and What Matters in the End
- Written by: Atul Gawande
- Narrated by: Robert Petkoff
- Length: 9 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 305
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 260
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Story5 out of 5 stars 257
In Being Mortal, best-selling author Atul Gawande tackles the hardest challenge of his profession: how medicine can not only improve life but also the process of its ending. Medicine has triumphed in modern times, transforming birth, injury, and infectious disease from harrowing to manageable. But in the inevitable condition of aging and death, the goals of medicine seem too frequently to run counter to the interest of the human spirit.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Must read for life and death
- By Trinity on 2018-02-19
Written by: Atul Gawande
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The Unwinding of the Miracle
- A Memoir of Life, Death, and Everything That Comes After
- Written by: Julie Yip-Williams
- Narrated by: Emily Woo Zeller, Joshua Williams
- Length: 11 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 9
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 9
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Story4 out of 5 stars 9
That Julie Yip-Williams survived infancy was a miracle. Then, at age 37, with two little girls at home, Julie was diagnosed with terminal metastatic colon cancer, and a different journey began. The Unwinding of the Miracle is the story of a vigorous life refracted through the prism of imminent death. When she was first diagnosed, Julie Yip-Williams sought clarity and guidance through the experience and, finding none, began to write her way through it - a chronicle that grew beyond her imagining.
Written by: Julie Yip-Williams
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The Bright Hour
- A Memoir of Living and Dying
- Written by: Nina Riggs
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell, Kirby Heyborne
- Length: 7 hrs and 34 mins
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 17
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 16
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 16
An exquisite memoir about how to live - and love - every day with "death in the room", from poet Nina Riggs, mother of two young sons and the direct descendant of Ralph Waldo Emerson, in the tradition of When Breath Becomes Air.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Nina Riggs story was sad, and wonderful...
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And Finally
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- Written by: Henry Marsh
- Narrated by: Henry Marsh
- Length: 5 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 2
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 2
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Story5 out of 5 stars 2
As a retired brain surgeon, Henry Marsh thought he understood illness, but he was unprepared for the impact of his diagnosis of advanced cancer. And Finally explores what happens when someone who has spent a lifetime on the frontline of life and death finds himself contemplating what might be his own death sentence. As he navigates the bewildering transition from doctor to patient, he is haunted by past failures and projects yet to be completed, and frustrated by the inconveniences of illness and old age.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Finally
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The Year of Magical Thinking
- Written by: Joan Didion
- Narrated by: Barbara Caruso
- Length: 5 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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"Life changes fast....You sit down to dinner and life as you know it ends." These were among the first words Joan Didion wrote in January 2004. Her daughter was lying unconscious in an intensive care unit, a victim of pneumonia and septic shock. Her husband, John Gregory Dunne, was dead. The night before New Year's Eve, while they were sitting down to dinner, he suffered a massive and fatal coronary. The two had lived and worked side by side for nearly 40 years.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Not Necessarily What I'd Hoped For
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Every Patient Tells a Story
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- Narrated by: Lisa Sanders
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 11
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A riveting exploration of the most difficult and important part of what doctors do, by Yale School of Medicine physician Dr. Lisa Sanders, author of the monthly New York Times Magazine column "Diagnosis", the inspiration for the hit Fox TV series House, M.D. In Every Patient Tells a Story, Dr. Lisa Sanders takes us bedside to witness the process of solving diagnostic dilemmas, providing a firsthand account of the expertise and intuition that lead a doctor to make the right diagnosis.
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Being Mortal
- Medicine and What Matters in the End
- Written by: Atul Gawande
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- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 305
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 260
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Story5 out of 5 stars 257
In Being Mortal, best-selling author Atul Gawande tackles the hardest challenge of his profession: how medicine can not only improve life but also the process of its ending. Medicine has triumphed in modern times, transforming birth, injury, and infectious disease from harrowing to manageable. But in the inevitable condition of aging and death, the goals of medicine seem too frequently to run counter to the interest of the human spirit.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Must read for life and death
- By Trinity on 2018-02-19
Written by: Atul Gawande
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The Unwinding of the Miracle
- A Memoir of Life, Death, and Everything That Comes After
- Written by: Julie Yip-Williams
- Narrated by: Emily Woo Zeller, Joshua Williams
- Length: 11 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 9
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 9
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Story4 out of 5 stars 9
That Julie Yip-Williams survived infancy was a miracle. Then, at age 37, with two little girls at home, Julie was diagnosed with terminal metastatic colon cancer, and a different journey began. The Unwinding of the Miracle is the story of a vigorous life refracted through the prism of imminent death. When she was first diagnosed, Julie Yip-Williams sought clarity and guidance through the experience and, finding none, began to write her way through it - a chronicle that grew beyond her imagining.
Written by: Julie Yip-Williams
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The Bright Hour
- A Memoir of Living and Dying
- Written by: Nina Riggs
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell, Kirby Heyborne
- Length: 7 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 17
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 16
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 16
An exquisite memoir about how to live - and love - every day with "death in the room", from poet Nina Riggs, mother of two young sons and the direct descendant of Ralph Waldo Emerson, in the tradition of When Breath Becomes Air.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Nina Riggs story was sad, and wonderful...
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Written by: Nina Riggs
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And Finally
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- Written by: Henry Marsh
- Narrated by: Henry Marsh
- Length: 5 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 2
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 2
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Story5 out of 5 stars 2
As a retired brain surgeon, Henry Marsh thought he understood illness, but he was unprepared for the impact of his diagnosis of advanced cancer. And Finally explores what happens when someone who has spent a lifetime on the frontline of life and death finds himself contemplating what might be his own death sentence. As he navigates the bewildering transition from doctor to patient, he is haunted by past failures and projects yet to be completed, and frustrated by the inconveniences of illness and old age.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Finally
- By linda morel on 2023-05-31
Written by: Henry Marsh
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The Year of Magical Thinking
- Written by: Joan Didion
- Narrated by: Barbara Caruso
- Length: 5 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 115
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 95
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 96
"Life changes fast....You sit down to dinner and life as you know it ends." These were among the first words Joan Didion wrote in January 2004. Her daughter was lying unconscious in an intensive care unit, a victim of pneumonia and septic shock. Her husband, John Gregory Dunne, was dead. The night before New Year's Eve, while they were sitting down to dinner, he suffered a massive and fatal coronary. The two had lived and worked side by side for nearly 40 years.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Not Necessarily What I'd Hoped For
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Written by: Joan Didion
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Every Patient Tells a Story
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 11
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 10
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Story5 out of 5 stars 10
A riveting exploration of the most difficult and important part of what doctors do, by Yale School of Medicine physician Dr. Lisa Sanders, author of the monthly New York Times Magazine column "Diagnosis", the inspiration for the hit Fox TV series House, M.D. In Every Patient Tells a Story, Dr. Lisa Sanders takes us bedside to witness the process of solving diagnostic dilemmas, providing a firsthand account of the expertise and intuition that lead a doctor to make the right diagnosis.
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Life on the Ground Floor
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 53
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 47
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 48
In this deeply personal audiobook, winner of the 2017 Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction, humanitarian doctor and activist James Maskalyk reflects upon his extensive experience in emergency medicine. Splitting his time between a trauma centre in Toronto's inner city and the largest teaching hospital in Addis Ababa, he discovers that though the cultures, resources and medical challenges of the hospitals may differ, they are linked indelibly by the ground floor: the location of their emergency rooms.
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5 out of 5 stars
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An incredible read 10/10
- By Kenneth Williams on 2021-03-27
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When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi: Unofficial & Independent Summary & Analysis
- Written by: Leopard Books
- Narrated by: Heidi Allred
- Length: 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall0 out of 5 stars 0
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Performance0 out of 5 stars 0
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Story0 out of 5 stars 0
When Breath Becomes Air is the autobiography of author Paul Kalanithi and is the only book he has written. This summary will cover the important concepts in the best-selling book by the beloved writer. The book is written in two parts, and each section will be condensed into a concise narrative, so the listener can understand the gist of it quickly.
Written by: Leopard Books
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In Shock
- My Journey from Death to Recovery and the Redemptive Power of Hope
- Written by: Dr. Rana Awdish
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 13
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 8
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Story5 out of 5 stars 9
In Shock is a riveting first-hand account from a young critical care physician, who in the passage of a moment is transfigured into a dying patient. This transposition, coincidentally timed at the end of her medical training, instantly lays bare the vast chasm between the conventional practice of medicine and the stark reality of the prostrate patient.
Written by: Dr. Rana Awdish
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The Emperor of All Maladies
- A Biography of Cancer
- Written by: Siddhartha Mukherjee
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
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- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 166
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 140
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The Emperor of All Maladies reveals the many faces of an iconic, shape-shifting disease that is the defining plague of our generation. The story of cancer is a story of human ingenuity, resilience, and perseverance but also of hubris, arrogance, paternalism, and misperception, all leveraged against a disease that, just three decades ago, was thought to be easily vanquished in an all-out "war against cancer".
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4 out of 5 stars
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A tough one to get through, but super worthy.
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Do No Harm
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- Written by: Henry Marsh
- Narrated by: Jim Barclay
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- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 33
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 29
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 29
With compassion and candor, leading neurosurgeon Henry Marsh reveals the fierce joy of operating, the profoundly moving triumphs, the harrowing disasters, the haunting regrets, and the moments of black humor that characterize a brain surgeon's life. If you believe that brain surgery is a precise and exquisite craft, practiced by calm and detached surgeons, this gripping, brutally honest account will make you think again.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Awesome book
- By Talitali on 2023-04-02
Written by: Henry Marsh
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How We Die
- Reflections on Life's Final Chapter
- Written by: Sherwin B. Nuland
- Narrated by: Sherwin B. Nuland
- Length: 2 hrs and 56 mins
- Abridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 17
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 16
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Story4 out of 5 stars 16
Even more relevant than when it was first published, this edition addresses contemporary issues in end-of-life care and includes an all-embracing and incisive afterword that examines the state of health care and our relationship with life as it approaches its terminus. How We Die also discusses how we can take control of our own final days and those of our loved ones.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Not the complete original book.
- By MW "Photodude." on 2020-07-25
Written by: Sherwin B. Nuland
Publisher's Summary
Number-one New York Times best seller. 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 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 36, 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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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 2020-01-25
An amazing book
This book is one of my all time favourites. Helps you remember to cherish and enjoy the present. Would definitely recommend anyone/everyone to read it
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Lokesh Koomar S Tyagee
- 2019-06-07
Must read to have a deep understanding
Helped me in understanding the main priorities of my life which needs to be dealt with!!!
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 2023-06-17
Thought provoking and inspiring
As a nurse, I can personally relate to this story. It allowed for me to step into a thoughts that one hardly thinks about, death. Amazing read!
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- 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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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- McK Hope
- 2023-10-24
Beautiful.
As a medical student who also spent a good deal of time in love with the humanities, I resonated so deeply with the beginnings of this journey. It was heart-wrenching and thoughtful and human.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Shabnam sharif
- 2023-06-11
life lessons from a neurosurgeon
I cried my eyes out reading this book since I could resonate with the things he went through.
my father had the same type of cancer, and he fought 3 years for his family.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Angela Bailey
- 2023-05-31
Fantastic
A must read for every human who has ever contemplated death. I binged it over the course of 18 hours.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- 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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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- sherryll-ann alexander
- 2023-03-12
A journey of life
I found this book refreshing because Paul understood the frailty of his humanity and those closest to him supported his journey, one from life to death and life again. He’s very much alive in the pages of human existence and what that really means.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- 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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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- A. Potter
- 2016-01-16
Phenomenal book!
Any additional comments?
I deeply connected with neurosurgeon Paul Kalanithi’s search for meaning in his young life, as a boy torn between literature and science; during medical school as he carefully opens up cadavers and ponders their former human selves; and after his diagnosis of stage IV lung cancer, as he confronts his decline at the peak of his career and the birth of his daughter, a precious girl who brings so much joy to his final days. I’m thankful Paul found a way to share his love of writing and prodigious talents with the world, especially under such harrowing circumstances. The world is richer place because of it. I’ll carry this book in my mind for a long time to come.
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159 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Anon E Mouse
- 2016-02-21
Really good, but not as good as...
For sure, this is a really good story and well worth your time. But I have to say that it didn't quite live up to the sky high expectations that I had after reading all the glowing reviews. To everyone who rated this as their best listen of the year, I suggest "Dying to be Me" by Anita Moorjani, Being Mortal by Atul Gawande, and The Emperor of All Maladies by Siddhartha Mukherjee (a Pulitzer Prize Winner). The first two in particular have much in common with "When Breath Becomes air", but in my opinion are clearly more compelling. All three are must read five star books if you really liked "When Breath Becomes air".
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150 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Shermeen
- 2016-01-21
Life changing
It's the middle of the night, and I am still in tears as I have just finished one of the most profound books I have ever read. I fear I will never have the dignity and grace that Paul had, and continues to have in my mind. This book is vulnerable, beautiful, and just so completely honest. You will not forget this book. Amazing delivery as well. I know what this world has lost.
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147 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Denise
- 2016-01-21
How this book was recommended
This book was auto-recommended to me by audible because of the types of books I like to read. I, however, think it should be recommended to everyone. This is a book that is not only poignant, touching, and painful; it is a book that is full of love, insight, courage and humility. One I know I will read again and again. May I recommend that you read it at least once?
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137 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- chetyarbrough.blog
- 2016-01-23
A LIFE OF DECENCY
“When Breath Becomes Air” memorializes a life of decency. It is not a perfect life. It is a short life of comfort and accomplishment, infused with stress and failure. Paul Kalnithi is the son of Indian immigrants who grows up in Kingman, Arizona. Kingman is a town of less than 29,000 people lying between Las Vegas luck and Phoenix senior living.
Those who choose to listen to “When Breath Becomes Air” will look at life differently. Not because of belief in God or the fallibility of human beings, but because we all live between Las Vegas luck and Phoenix senior living. Death is a part of life whether it is an end or a beginning. Education makes a difference and no life of comfort and accomplishment is without stress and failure. The best one hopes for is to live and leave life as decently as Paul Kalnithi who dies at 37.
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128 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
- Dusty S. Human
- 2016-01-16
Love and Beauty in Extremis
The author expresses, lived, and has shared how meaning can transform tragedy into a deep transcendence of being that shimmers. As a hospice chaplain, I could not help but be awed by the clarity and beauty of love, vulnerability, and honesty that has been lived by the author and his family.
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62 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- C. Huang
- 2016-01-23
Amazing book
This book brought me to tears many times. It's rare that we find someone so eloquent with such a tragic story and wonderful insights that is able to verbalize their findings so well. I recommend it to all my friends. As a fellow physician, it really struck a cord with me.
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61 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- W Perry Hall
- 2016-02-18
Memoir, Message, A Morning Glory
As memorable as it is moving for not only the charm and impact of Dr. Paul Kalanithi's writing but also his impressive might to complete the memoir's manuscript maugre the malignancy that ultimately ended his life before he finished writing.
Though I'd never presume as much, I try to maintain my faith that a reason exists for the premature death of someone like Paul Kalanithi, who was able and devoted to giving so much. That is to say, I must have hope that Dr. Kalanithi, a mid-30s highly respected neurosurgeon with a loving wife and infant daughter, was empowered by his disease, as the best of empyreal messengers, to contemplate, conceive and write his message in a way that reminds its readers that we are mortal, a reminder not in a melancholic or morbid sense, but as eyeing a morning glory, as we move forward on the road to the rest of our lives.
As I see his message, we will die, but we can live a meaningful life by giving of ourselves to make an impact on others, by trying to improve those around us by doing good deeds and by art, such as by creating through writing. In this way, we may live on, as Dr. Kalanithi has managed through this sublime memoir.
I found his wife's epilogue particularly touching in describing the last couple of weeks, when he could write no more, and his monumental endeavor to write this memoir.
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57 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Hannah
- 2016-01-15
Insanely Good / Will be my favorite book of 2016
This book will be hard to top, seriously so good. Should be required reading for all medical staff, but also for all non-medical staff.
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54 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Celia
- 2016-05-31
Inspirational yet Existential Crisis Inducing
I found the foreword almost unbearably flowery and was unable to follow Kalanithi's discussion of the evolution of his religious beliefs in the face of his illness. Aside from this, however, this book was inspirational, informative, and deep. One caveat, however: this one can be quite the inducer of existential crises. Or at least it was for me.
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41 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- tinkerbeal
- 2017-07-07
Doctor-patient relationship
Good book to understand the trials and tribulations of the singular relationship between the doctor and the physician and when a doctor becomes a patient. As most autobiographies, it does not tell the whole story...if it had been less of a tribute and more honest, it could have been very powerful. The end by the wife is unnecessary and not a fitting ending to the book....the author himself leaves an open ending, which is much more fitting.
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