When Breath Becomes Air Audiobook By Paul Kalanithi cover art

When Breath Becomes Air

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When Breath Becomes Air

By: Paul Kalanithi
Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell, Sunil Malhotra
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The New York Times number-one best seller.

At the age of 36, 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 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.

©2016 Paul Kalanithi (P)2016 Random House AudioBooks
Biographies & Memoirs Goodreads Choice Award Grief & Loss Personal Development Physical Illness & Disease Relationships Sociology
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Critic reviews

"Finishing this book and then forgetting about it is simply not an option.... Unmissable." ( New York Times)
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The book has so much depth and makes you reflect on life and what we hope for

Deep

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Very good interesting and touching book!! Must listen atleast once!!!

Story was very much touching

Touching!!!!

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Excellent , very inspirational. Very open and honest account of his life with cancer .

When breath becomes air

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This book and the lovely voices will live with me long after the last word.

A beautifully written book.

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Life doesn’t give you second chances. Life is now. Live the present. LIVE now. Thank you!!!

Thanks thanks thanks Paul

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If you could sum up When Breath Becomes Air in three words, what would they be?

touching emotional honest

What about Cassandra Campbell and Sunil Malhotra ’s performance did you like?

Read gently with empathy and emotion

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

The book resonated with me and was an extremely emotional journey as my mother recently suffered with, and died of, cancer. I could identify with all the stages, emotions and physical deterioration that he experienced from a loved one's point of view (the epilogue by his wife Lucy was especially touching as a lot of what she wrote was very real and touched raw patches of emotion still exposed by my mother's death).
Very well written but so sad.
It did help me see the trauma I experienced during the deterioration and eventual death of my mother as something that is not unique and that I will overcome the bereavement.

Any additional comments?

Brilliant - a must read for anyone who is going through or has been through a similar experience.

A touching account of Paul's battle with cancer

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no words..the tear drop which flew down my cheeks were in sheer admiration...Thank you for publishing this...

woow

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Thank you Paul for writing this book. It feels extremely authentic and honest. I have come to love you and your family through this book. I admire you.

Thank you for this book.

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A powerful story of hope and courage. Not a hint of self pity. A clear view of facing life and death and the complexities thereof.

A Powerful Book

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This is profoundly heartbreaking but reassuring that Paul lived his dreams, although not long enough. His book is achieving more touching and bringing people to the reality of life, meaning and purpose.

This touched me deeply.

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