THE NEW YORK TIMES NUMBER ONE BESTSELLER THE SUNDAY 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 decades 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 Kalanithis 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.