Book Review 14: When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi.

“I can’t go on. I’ll go on.” 
― Paul Kalanithi, When Breath Becomes Air.


An English Literature and Human Biology Graduate, Paul Kalanithi went ahead to practice medicine and become a neurosurgeon to find an answer to the question - "Where did Biology, Mortality, Literature and Philosophy intersect?"

'When Breath Becomes Air' is the heartbreaking memoir of Paul Kalanithi. At the age of thirty-six, at the peak of his career as a neurosurgeon, when he with his wife was looking forward to a beautiful future ahead, Dr. Kalanithi was diagnosed with stage IV of lung cancer.

His story shows us how it feels to see death approaching, and shattering all the plans that one had planned for the future. How the deadly disease cut short the life of such a promising neurosurgeon who could have saved the lives of so many people. One day he was a doctor treating the dying, and the next he was a patient struggling to live.

This book made me contemplate the meaning of life and death. The heartbreaking story made my eyes moist not once, but numerous times as I read it. Dr. Kalanithi, through his memoir, made us realize how to live life meaningfully and face the reality, that is, death gracefully without fear.


"You can't ever reach perfection, but you can believe in an asymptote toward which you are ceaselessly striving." - Paul Kalanithi, When Breath Becomes Air.

Some books stay with us, deep inside our hearts, forever. 'When Breath Becomes Air' by Paul Kalanithi is one such book. The way Dr. Kalanithi accepted death and faced the grim reality can have life-changing effects on the readers.

This profound, emotional, beautiful and heart-breaking memoir is a must-read for each and every person.

About the author : Paul Kalanithi, M.D., was a neurosurgeon and writer. Paul grew up in Kingman, Arizona, before attending Stanford University, from which he graduated in 2000 with a B.A. and M.A. in English Literature and a B.A. in Human Biology. He earned an M.Phil in History and Philosophy of Science and Medicine from the University of Cambridge before attending medical school. In 2007, Paul graduated cum-laude from the Yale School of Medicine, winning the Lewis H. Nahum Prize for outstanding research and membership in the Alpha Omega Alpha medical honor society. He returned to Stanford for residency training in Neurological Surgery and a postdoctoral fellowship in neuroscience, during which he authored over twenty scientific publications and received the American Academy of Neurological Surgery’s highest award for research.

Paul’s reflections on doctoring and illness – he was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer in 2013, though he never smoked – have been published in The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Paris Review Daily, in addition to interviews in academic settings and media outlets such as MSNBC. Paul completed neurosurgery residency in 2014. Paul died in March, 2015, while working on When Breath Becomes Air, an unforgettable, life-affirming reflection on the challenge of facing mortality and on the relationship between doctor and patient, from a gifted writer who became both. He is survived by his wife Lucy and their daughter Cady.

My rating : 5 of 5 stars.
Publisher : The Bodly Head (part of Penguin Random House).
First Published : January 2016
Pages : 228
Price : ₹599/-