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1 month ago
Very relatable
Must read … especially for every medicalStudent or professional aspiring to become great at their field. captures the purpose and frivolity of life in the same book.
When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi Hardcover
by by Paul Kalanithi (Author) Format: Hardcover
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Customers say
✨ AI-generated from reviewsCustomers find this memoir deeply moving and thought-provoking, with a brutally honest first-person narrative that stays with readers long after finishing. The book is beautifully written, with genuine and poetic prose that compels readers to reflect on life and death. Customers describe it as a must-read that fills them with positivity, and one review notes how it provides life lessons for everyone.
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Reviews
Loved by 8 customers.
4.8
Based on 8 reviews
1 month ago
A powerful reflection of mortality
A deeply moving and thought-provoking book. It beautifully explores life, death, purpose, and what it truly means to live. Paul Kalanithi’s journey as a doctor and a patient makes the story very personal and powerful. It stays with you long after you finish reading it. Definitely a book worth reading.
1 year ago
A Deeply Moving Book with Subtle Life Lessons
When Breath Becomes Air is not just a memoir—it's a mirror to how high-achieving, ambitious professionals cope with mortality. Paul Kalanithi was brilliant and successful, but also deeply driven—maybe even obsessed—with work and productivity. Even after being diagnosed with terminal cancer, he found solace not in rest or reflection, but in returning to the operating room and chasing routine. That was his coping mechanism—his form of dopamine.What stood out to me was how little focus was given to health basics—no deep mention of sleep, food, or exercise, except a brief line about enjoying running. Instead, Paul seemed to rely on sheer willpower and purpose to keep going. It makes you think: was the chronic stress and 100-hour workweeks a contributor to his illness? It’s a tough but relevant question for our times.His wife’s chapter confirms how relentlessly he kept working till the very end. He wasn’t money-minded per se, but he needed to keep moving, keep achieving—it was his identity. That kind of internal pressure is admirable, yet concerning.Many educated professionals today, like Paul, plan their lives—right down to the timing of having children—but faith or surrender rarely feature.Between the lines, the book teaches powerful "dos and don’ts" of life, stress, and balance. It’s an emotional read, full of honesty, but also a reminder of the cost of relentless ambition.Highly recommended—but it’s not just a book to read. It’s one to reflect on.
1 year ago
Memoir of the neurosurgeon - a good read
My mind often puts together situations of death of a dear one. It takes a moment to shunt away the thought. I fail to understand whether it is the fear of death or the situation composed in mind more scarier.When Breath Becomes Air is a memoir of the neurosurgeon treating the patients, looking at their CT scans and, in an instant holding his own reports and someone else is monitoring his health. Paul Kalanithi’s story conveys to accept death dutifully. (of course, it’s easier said than done) Reading the words feels significant!My eyes got blurry with tears reading Lucy Kalanithi’s epilogue. ❤️Alongside, the author enlightens the reader about the vigorous hardship of a physician 🧑⚕️ and, the complex doctor-patient relation.
8 years ago
Enthralling Work of An Existential Nature
‘At the touch of love, everyone becomes a poet’, it is said. But one cannot say the same about Death. When Death arrives calling, not everyone stays brave or becomes a philosopher. Not all of us remain the proud humans that we are during our lifetimes, but go begging for another lease of life, no matter however brief that might be. Very few of us have the courage and composure to meet Death face-to-face, contemplate their life so far, take stock of their purpose and progress, and then, finally, do something that would fill them with the satisfaction of leaving behind something worthwhile, something that could set apart their sojourn on this planet from the billions of others. Paul Kalanithi’s was, fortunately or unfortunately, one such life that acquired a glowing purpose and meaning, sadly more during his final phase of life.Paul Kalanithi was the second of three sons of an Indian couple settled in America. He had everything going for him. A comfortable life with family, marrying the love of his life, pursuing a career as special and as advanced as neurosurgery, reputation that could have landed him a plump career as soon as his training ended. But he also had something else too – lung cancer of an advanced stage. All his plans for the future suddenly vanished like mirage. With a life now cut short due to illness, Paul launched deeply into questions of existential nature, questions he had felt even while he was riding the crest of the tide.This book is the answer to his questions about the meaning and purpose of human life. And, what an eloquent and poetic answer this has turned out to be! Published posthumously, this memoir recounts Paul’s early life in detail, telling us about what led to his decision to pursue a career in neuroscience, his early days as a resident surgeon and his ascent to glory. Then come the details of his illness, the various stages of cure that were tried and his frantic, determined quest to find the meaning for his life, whatever little was left of it. His wife Lucy’s epilogue is as fitting an end to the book as it could have been – beautiful, full of love and written more in a matter of fact manner than in a mawkish tone, just the same way in which Paul had written the whole book.Life is a continuum and Death is a part of it, whether we like it or not. Death is in fact the only absolute certainty in the lives of everything, from the tiny sapling to the mightiest of stars. Just like the eyes ignore the nose that is in front of them, in order to give us an unhindered view of the world, our minds push that ineluctable reality behind so that we can plot our plans for decades until, of course, Death arrives calling, putting to waste our best-laid plans. The more we contemplate the meaning of our lives, the more we acknowledge what awaits us all in the end, and the more we chart the course of our lives accordingly, the easier it becomes for us to leave our mortal shells behind with dignity. Just the way Paul did.Going through the book, I was often reminded of Viktor Frankl’s ‘Meaning Triangle’. According to him, a human being can add meaning to his/her life in one of these three ways – by creating something beautiful – a work of art, literature or something else similar, by being a beacon of love, filling the lives of others with love and joyful experiences or, finally, by showing a courageous attitude towards the travails that Life places on one’s path. According to me, Paul has done all the three and has really added a glowing meaning to his beautiful life, no matter however short it had been.Done reading, I am leaving this book on my shelf, nestled between Viktor Frankl’s magnum opus ‘Man’s Search for Meaning’ and Anne Frank’s ‘The Diary of A Young Girl’, because I really feel that this book deserves its place up there!
9 years ago
One of the best memoirs I have ever read
One of the best memoirs I have ever read. Truly gripping, deeply riveting, poignant, heartbreaking and daring in everyway .The book is a poignant tale about the sojourn stay on earth of an extra ordinary human being. The book is split in to two parts. In first part, the author describes about his childhood days growing up in kingsman Arizona, his love for books & how they helped him in making the choices that shaped his life.He also details about some of the choices that he has made in life along with reason and judgement.He explains about how from an early age, he has aroused a keen interest in books and how his mother who was influential in instilling in him his love for books & literature from an early age. He has made books his closest confidants, finely ground lenses providing new views of the world.His mothers quest to provide better education for her kids combined with the excellence standards set by his father along with his love for literature, drove his spirits and landed him with a degree in english @ Stanford. The author also narrates how his course at Stanford helped him seek a deeper understanding of a life and identify what makes life meaningful.His search for identifying purpose & meaning to life dawned him with the revelation that only a physician could truly understand the physiological-spiritual man. which led him to choose medicine as his profession. & neurosurgery as his specialization. He beautifully unveils his choice of specialization and substantiates it with a barrage of facts/information.He elucidates that he was compelled for neurosurgery because of it unforgiving call to perfection.which required moral,emotional, mental and physical excellence. The duties of the neurosurgeons and the enormous physical,emotional,mental & moral responsibilities that they need to shoulder while treating the patients has been explained in detail.since brain being the most important part of the human body that could give rise to an organism capable of creating an identity to the human life & finding meaning in the world,Neurosurgeons are considered as polymaths who strode into the densest thickest of emotional,scientific and spiritual problems and found or carved ways out.As individuals, during our lifetime we tend to dwell more on ephemeral stuffs and wrestle hard to create an identity for ourselves. But the author's pursuit to create an identity for another individual by being the best version of himself via neurosurgery is highly commendable.In the second part of the book, the author details about how life takes a complete shift after being diagnosed with cancer. He elucidates about the hardships being faced and how he was determined to cease not until death. Its truly heart wrenching to see how at times,an arduous feat becomes baseless and pointless when faced with destiny. Its quite evident from the book that the author was a man who possessed an unimpeachable rectitude and integrity.His vision to lead a purposeful & meaningful life is very evident from the beginning.The epilogue by his wife at the end of this book is worth to be mentioned.Wonderfully written.The author has incorporated a judicious use of lyric quotations advances to a striking level of exaltation and triumph. Filled with admiration and awe not just for the writing but for the literature scholarship and for the determination and dedication that made it possible during the testing of times. This is truly a masterpiece and the author will be extant in the memories of the readers for generations to come. The book is bound to influence the reader profoundly.
Q&A
Questions? We've got answers.
FAQs
Most readers say the memoir reads smoothly and feels accessible. A few mention medical details, but the overall response is that the narrative stays clear and engaging.
Buyers describe a brutally honest first-person memoir from a neurosurgeon confronting terminal illness. Many say the true story feels intimate, personal, and memorable long after finishing.
Reviewers repeatedly praise the prose as elegant, poetic, and compassionate. Several mention that the language feels beautiful without turning the book into a difficult read.
Expect a moving read. Customers often call the memoir heartbreaking and evocative, though many also say the honesty and perspective leave them with hope, not just sadness.
Readers point to the book's reflections on mortality, purpose, and how to live well under pressure. Many describe it as the kind of memoir that keeps working on you after the last page.
Medical students and healthcare readers come up often in reviews, especially around empathy and the doctor-patient viewpoint. General readers also say the life lessons reach far beyond medicine.
The hardcover runs 256 pages and is written in English. Bodley Head published this edition in 2016, so the memoir stays compact enough for readers who prefer shorter nonfiction.
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