When Breath Becomes Air

Author Paul Kalanithi
Narrator Cassandra Campbell, Sunil Malhotra
Publisher Random House
Publish Date 10 March 2016
Run Time 5 hours and 35 minutes
Format Audio
Genre Biography and non-fiction prose, Coping with death and bereavement, Family and health, History of science, Memoirs, Neurosciences, Science: general issues, Society and Social Sciences, Sociology: death and dying.

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What to expect

THE NEW YORK TIMES NUMBER ONE BESTSELLER

'Finishing this book and then forgetting about it is simply not an option...Unmissable' New York Times

At the age of thirty-six, on the verge of completing a decade’s training as a neurosurgeon, Paul Kalanithi was diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer. One day he was a doctor treating the dying, the next he was a patient struggling to live.

When Breath Becomes Air chronicles Kalanithi’s transformation from a medical student asking what makes a virtuous and meaningful life into a neurosurgeon working in the core of human identity – the brain – and finally into a patient and a new father.

What makes life worth living in the face of death? What do you do when when life is catastrophically interrupted? What does it mean to have a child as your own life fades away?

Paul Kalanithi died while working on this profoundly moving book, yet his words live on as a guide to us all. When Breath Becomes Air is a life-affirming reflection on facing our mortality and on the relationship between doctor and patient, from a gifted writer who became both.

Critics Review

A vital book about dying. Awe-inspiring and exquisite. Obligatory reading for the living.

Nigella Lawson

Rattling. Heartbreaking. Beautiful.

Atul Gawande, author of BEING MORTAL

A great, indelible book ... as intimate and illuminating as Atul Gawandeu2019s u201cBeing Mortal,u201d to cite only one recent example of a doctoru2019s book that has had exceptionally wide appeal ... I guarantee that finishing this book and then forgetting about it is simply not an option ... gripping from the start ... None of it is maudlin. Nothing is exaggerated. As he wrote to a friend: u201cItu2019s just tragic enough and just imaginable enough.u201d And just important enough to be unmissable.

New York Times

Powerful and poignant.

The Sunday Times

Less a memoir than a reflection on life and purposeu2026 A vital book.

The Economist

Extraordinary...Remarkable... luminous, revelatory memoir about mortality and what makes being alive meaningful ... Lyrical, intimate, insistent and profound. Kalanithi had the mind of the polymath and the ear of a poet.

Daily Telegraph

Powerful and poignantu2026 Elegantly written posthumous memoiru2026 Should be compulsory for anyone who intends to be a doctoru2026 A profound reflection on the meaning of life.

Sunday Times

A stark, fascinating, well-written and heroic memoir.

The Times

Exceptional.

Evening Standard

When I came to the end of the last flawless paragraph of When Breath Becomes Air, all I could do was turn to the first page and read the whole thing again. Searingly intelligent, beautifully written, and beyond brave, I haven't been so marked by a book in years.

Gabriel Weston, author of DIRECT RED

User Reviews

Book 4.7

Narration 4.0

5.0

3.0

Loved the book, and enjoyed the majority of the narration, but I didnu2019t like the way all the female characters were voiced with such a high pitch and meek, passive tone. The epilogue - in a real female voice - was narrated much better.

L_McDonnell 22/05/2025

5.0

Locd78 30/01/2025

4.0

georgiat.s 23/05/2023

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