When Breath Becomes Air is a non-fiction autobiographical book written by American Neurosurgeon Dr. Paul Kalanithi, published in 2016. It is a memoir about his life and illness, battling stage IV metastatic lung cancer.

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?

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