{"product_id":"9780812988406","title":"When Breath Becomes Air: Pulitzer Prize Finalist","description":"\u003cb\u003e#1 \u003ci\u003eNEW YORK TIMES\u003c\/i\u003e BESTSELLER • PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST • OVER TWO MILLION COPIES SOLD\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis inspiring, exquisitely observed memoir finds hope and beauty in the face of insurmountable odds as an idealistic young neurosurgeon attempts to answer the question, \u003ci\u003eWhat makes a life worth living?\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e“Unmissable . . . Finishing this book and then forgetting about it is simply not an option.”—Janet Maslin, \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times Book Review, People, \u003c\/i\u003eNPR\u003ci\u003e, The Washington Post, Slate, Harper’s Bazaar, Time Out New York, Publishers Weekly, BookPage\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAn \u003ci\u003eOprah Daily \u003c\/i\u003eBest Nonfiction Book of the Past Two Decades • A \u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews \u003c\/i\u003eBest Nonfiction Book of the Century\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAt the age of thirty-six, on the verge of completing a decade’s worth of training as a neurosurgeon, Paul Kalanithi was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. One day he was a doctor treating the dying, and the next he was a patient struggling to live. And just like that, the future he and his wife had imagined evaporated. \u003ci\u003eWhen Breath Becomes Air\u003c\/i\u003e chronicles Kalanithi’s transformation from a naïve medical student “possessed,” as he wrote, “by the question of what, given that all organisms die, makes a virtuous and meaningful life” into a neurosurgeon at Stanford working in the brain, the most critical place for human identity, and finally into a patient and new father confronting his own mortality.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhat makes life worth living in the face of death? What do you do when the future, no longer a ladder toward your goals in life, flattens out into a perpetual present? What does it mean to have a child, to nurture a new life as another fades away? These are some of the questions Kalanithi wrestles with in this profoundly moving, exquisitely observed memoir.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePaul Kalanithi died in March 2015, while working on this book, yet his words live on as a guide and a gift to us all. “I began to realize that coming face to face with my own mortality, in a sense, had changed nothing and everything,” he wrote. “Seven words from Samuel Beckett began to repeat in my head: ‘I can’t go on. I’ll go on.’” \u003ci\u003eWhen Breath Becomes Air\u003c\/i\u003e is an unforgettable, life-affirming reflection on the challenge of facing death and on the relationship between doctor and patient, from a brilliant writer who became both.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFinalist for the PEN Center USA Literary Award in Creative Nonfiction and the Books for a Better Life Award in Inspirational Memoir\u003c\/b\u003e","brand":"Random House Publishing Group","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42370164293693,"sku":"9780812988406","price":27.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0603\/0838\/9949\/files\/9780812988406_p0.jpg?v=1771580942","url":"https:\/\/www.tatteredcover.com\/products\/9780812988406","provider":"Tattered Cover","version":"1.0","type":"link"}