When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi

This is a profoundly moving memoir by a young neurosurgeon who faced his own mortality after being diagnosed with terminal cancer. Paul Kalanithi spent his life grappling with questions of meaning, first through literature and philosophy, and then through the intense, demanding discipline of neurosurgery, where he confronted the human brain and the essence of identity every day.

At the peak of his training, on the cusp of a fulfilling career, he was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer at the age of thirty-six. The book chronicles his transformation from a doctor who treats the dying to a patient struggling to survive. It is a powerful, honest, and heartbreaking exploration of what makes life worth living in the face of death. Kalanithi's story is a poignant meditation on the relationship between doctor and patient, and a beautiful, unsentimental letter to his infant daughter about the life he will not get to see her live.