When Breath Becomes Air is the memoir of Paul Kalanithi, a neurosurgeon who was diagnosed with terminal cancer in 2013, and died two years later. Published a little under a year after his death it’s a distillation of his thoughts on life, seen through the lenses of a lifelong passion for literature and the arts, and a keen awareness of mortality. Not many people see both sides of the doctor/patient relationship, nor have the combination of medical understanding, emotional awareness and literary skill to be able to offer such an honest and vivid depiction of this awful illness.
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