When Breath Becomes Air
Paul Kalanithi (2016)
“A neurosurgeon dying of lung cancer asks the only question that matters: what makes a life worth living — and worth dying for?”
At a Glance
Paul Kalanithi is a brilliant neurosurgeon-in-training who has spent his career confronting death — until a stage IV lung cancer diagnosis at age 36 makes him its subject. Told in two parts and an epilogue written by his wife Lucy after his death, the memoir traces his journey from literature student to surgeon to patient: a man who chose medicine to answer philosophy's hardest questions, and who then had to answer them himself.
Read full summary →Why This Book Matters
Debuted at #1 on the New York Times bestseller list in January 2016 and remained on the list for over a year. Sold over a million copies in its first year. Selected as a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in biography. Credited with reinvigorating the illness memoir as a literary form and sparking national conversations about end-of-life care, medical education, and the meaning of a 'good death.' Required reading in dozens of medical schools for its treatment of the doctor-patient relationship.
Diction Profile
Formally literary with bursts of medical precision — Latinate medical vocabulary coexisting with humanistic philosophical register
Moderate