Book review: When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi

What do you do when confronted with death after planning your whole life? What makes life worth living? These are just a few of the questions Paul Kalanithi, a neurosurgeon nearing the end of his residency, had to face after being diagnosed with terminal lung cancer.

After experiencing life with a doctor as a father, Kalanithi started his academic life rejecting medicine as a career, instead showing an interest in literature. Specifically, wanting an answer to the age-old question: What makes human life meaningful? He soon realised that to understand the mind he also had to understand the brain as a biological organism, and so pursued a degree in human biology as well as English literature.

After failing to find the answers he wanted, Kalanithi turned to medicine to help him understand what makes human life meaningful, searching amongst the suffering experienced by patients everyday who still manage to hold on to hope. Eventually, Kalanithi would directly experience what makes life worth living when facing death. His role as a doctor would be switched to that of a patient. He would be the one trying to find meaning outside of everything else he once knew in his life.

This book is one for everyone. Whether you simply want to read about the life of a doctor at the top of his game and how he copes when everything comes crashing down; or you too wonder about the interwoven connection between the meaning of life, as seen in literature and philosophy, and the physiological mechanisms of the brain. Something about you will have changed after reading this book.

Reviewed by Hansa Iqbal