When Breath Becomes Air

At the age of 36, in his final year of neurosurgical residency at Stanford, Paul Kalanithi learned he had stage IV lung cancer. His memoir moves from a childhood in Kingman, Arizona, and degrees in English literature and human biology, through a decade of medical training, to life as a patient. He writes about the reversal from treating the dying to joining them, about becoming a father during his illness, and about what makes a life meaningful when the future shrinks to the present. Kalanithi died in March 2015 before finishing it. Random House published it in 2016, with Abraham Verghese contributing a foreword and his widow, Lucy, an epilogue.

Bill Gates wrote that he could not imagine how Kalanithi found the strength to write it while so ill, and Ryan Holiday called it underrated despite its popularity. Jay Shetty featured it in a Daily Wisdom piece on finding the bright side of life.