Paul Kalanithi was a neurosurgeon and writer. He grew up in Kingman, Arizona, and graduated from Stanford University with a BA and MA in English literature and a BA in human biology. He earned an MPhil in history and philosophy of science and medicine from the University of Cambridge and graduated cum laude from the Yale School of Medicine, where he was inducted into the Alpha Omega Alpha national medical honor society. He returned to Stanford to complete his residency training in neurological surgery and a postdoctoral fellowship in neuroscience, during which he received the American Academy of Neurological Surgery’s highest award for research. He died in March 2015. He is survived by his large, loving family, including his wife, Lucy, and their daughter, Elizabeth Acadia.
“I guarantee that finishing this book and then forgetting about it
is simply not an option. . . . Part of this book’s tremendous
impact comes from the obvious fact that its author was such a
brilliant polymath. None of it is maudlin. Nothing is exaggerated.
As he wrote to a friend: ‘It’s just tragic enough and just
imaginable enough.’ And just important enough to be
unmissable.”—Janet Maslin, The New York Times
“Paul Kalanithi’s memoir, When Breath Becomes Air, written as he
faced a terminal cancer diagnosis, is inherently sad. But it’s an
emotional investment well worth making: a moving and thoughtful
memoir of family, medicine and literature. It is, despite its grim
undertone, accidentally inspiring.”—The Washington Post
“Kalanithi uses the pages in this book to not only tell his story,
but also share his ideas on how to approach death with grace and
what it means to be fully alive.”—James Clear, #1 New York
Times bestselling author of Atomic Habits
“Paul Kalanithi’s posthumous memoir, When Breath Becomes Air,
possesses the gravity and wisdom of an ancient Greek tragedy. . . .
The book brims with insightful reflections on mortality that are
especially poignant coming from a trained physician familiar with
what lies ahead. . . .”—The Boston Globe
“Devastating and spectacular . . . [Kalanithi] is so likeable, so
relatable, and so humble, that you become immersed in his world and
forget where it’s all heading.”—USA Today
“It’s [Kalanithi’s] unsentimental approach that makes When Breath
Becomes Air so original—and so devastating. . . . Its only fault is
that the book, like his life, ends much too early.”—Entertainment
Weekly
“[When Breath Becomes Air] split my head open with its
beauty.”—Cheryl Strayed
“Rattling, heartbreaking, and ultimately beautiful, the too-young
Dr. Kalanithi’s memoir is proof that the dying are the ones who
have the most to teach us about life.”—Atul Gawande
“Thanks to When Breath Becomes Air, those of us who never met Paul
Kalanithi will both mourn his death and benefit from his life. This
is one of a handful of books I consider to be a universal donor—I
would recommend it to anyone, everyone.”—Ann Patchett
“Dr. Kalanithi describes, clearly and simply, and entirely without
self-pity, his journey from innocent medical student to
professionally detached and all-powerful neurosurgeon to helpless
patient, dying from cancer. Every doctor should read this
book—written by a member of our own tribe, it helps us understand
and overcome the barriers we all erect between ourselves and our
patients as soon as we are out of medical school.”—Henry Marsh,
author of Do No Harm: Stories of Life, Death, and Brain Surgery
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