At the age of thirty-six, at the peak of his career as a neurosurgeon, Paul Kalanithi was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer. One day he was a doctor caring for the dying, and the next he was a patient fighting for his own life. And just like that, the future he and his wife had dreamed of was permanently erased.

"When Breath Becomes Air" is the chronicle of Paul Kalanithi's transformation from a naïve medical student, who, as he wrote, “passionately wanted to answer the question of what makes life meaningful, given that all organisms die,” into a Stanford neurosurgeon specializing in the most crucial organ of human identity, the brain, and ultimately into a patient and new father confronting his own mortality.

What gives life value so that you live it in defiance of death? What do you do when the future is no longer a ladder to the goals you’ve set in your life and deflates into an endless present? What does it mean to have a child, to raise a new life, while another, your own, is slowly fading away?

Paul Kalanithi died in March 2015 while writing the final pages of his book. His words live on as a guide, a gift to all of us. “I began to realize that as I faced my own mortality, in a sense nothing changed and yet everything changed,” he wrote. “Six words from Samuel Beckett began to repeat in my head: ‘I can’t go on. I will go on.’”

"When Breath Becomes Air" is a memorable, poignant, and optimistic reflection on the challenge of confronting death and the relationship between doctor and patient, from a remarkable writer who was both.

“Extraordinarily poignant and beautifully written, the memoirs of the young Dr. Kalanithi are proof that dying people are those who have the most to teach us about life.” ATUL GAWANDE

“Thanks to When Breath Becomes Air, those of us who did not know Paul Kalanithi will mourn his death and at the same time benefit from his life. This is one of the few books I consider to be a gift to the world – I would recommend it unreservedly to everyone.” ANN PATCHETT

“A Renaissance book by a Renaissance man. When Breath Becomes Air tells us what it means to live a good life and it does so by talking to us about an extraordinary life.” LUCY KELLAWAY, Financial Times

“A great, an unforgettable book.” New York Times

“This book has the power and wisdom of an ancient tragedy... The author’s voice is so solid and strong that one almost expects it to transcend even his own death and continue describing what his family and friends did when he was gone. And while that doesn’t happen, of course, the message of this profoundly moving book serves as a kind of continuity.” The Boston Globe

“Writing and surgery are two different things, and it is extremely rare for someone so skilled in the latter to possess such great talent in the former...” Kirkus Reviews