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When Breath Becomes Air
- Narrated by: Sunil Malhotra, Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 5 hrs and 35 mins
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Publisher's summary
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST • This inspiring, exquisitely observed memoir finds hope and beauty in the face of insurmountable odds as an idealistic young neurosurgeon attempts to answer the question What makes a life worth living?
NAMED ONE OF PASTE’S BEST MEMOIRS OF THE DECADE • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times Book Review • People • NPR • The Washington Post • Slate • Harper’s Bazaar • Time Out New York • Publishers Weekly • BookPage
Finalist for the PEN Center USA Literary Award in Creative Nonfiction and the Books for a Better Life Award in Inspirational Memoir
At 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. When Breath Becomes Air 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.
What 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.
Paul 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.’” When Breath Becomes Air 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.
Critic reviews
"Narrator Sunil Malhotra is faithful to the straightforward tone of Paul Kalanithi's memoir.... Cassandra Campbell narrates the epilogue by Kalanithi's wife, recounting his final moments in a smooth, empathetic voice that is certain to bring tears. When Breath Becomes Air may be unsentimental, but it is profoundly affecting." (AudioFile)
“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. And part comes from the way he conveys what happened to him - passionately working and striving, deferring gratification, waiting to live, learning to die - so well. 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)
“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)
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- By: Abraham Verghese
- Narrated by: Neil Shah
- Length: 13 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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When Abraham Verghese, a physician whose marriage is unraveling, relocates to El Paso, Texas, he hopes to make a fresh start as a staff member at the county hospital. There he meets David Smith, a medical student recovering from drug addiction, and the two men begin a tennis ritual that allows them to shed their inhibitions and find security in the sport they love and with each other. This friendship between doctor and intern grows increasingly rich and complex, more intimate than two men usually allow.
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Honesty with Oneself
- By Dana Cradeur on 03-29-24
By: Abraham Verghese
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Shine
- A Short Story
- By: Jodi Picoult
- Narrated by: Audra McDonald
- Length: 1 hr and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Story
Today is Ruth's first day of third grade at Dalton. The prestigious institution on New York's Upper East Side couldn't be more different from her old school in Harlem. Despite being the smartest girl in her grade, Ruth suspects that her classmates and teachers see only her dark skin. She also notices that Christina, the daughter of her mother's employer, treats Ruth very differently when they're hanging out with the popular girls rather than playing together. Ruth must navigate between two worlds.
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Short story prequel to Small Great Things
- By Wayne on 12-02-18
By: Jodi Picoult
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The Body
- A Guide for Occupants
- By: Bill Bryson
- Narrated by: Bill Bryson
- Length: 14 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Story
Bill Bryson once again proves himself to be an incomparable companion as he guides us through the human body - how it functions, its remarkable ability to heal itself, and (unfortunately) the ways it can fail. Full of extraordinary facts (your body made a million red blood cells since you started reading this) and irresistible Bryson-esque anecdotes, The Body will lead you to a deeper understanding of the miracle that is life in general and you in particular. As Bill Bryson writes, "We pass our existence within this wobble of flesh and yet take it almost entirely for granted."
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Must Read for the Sheer Fun of It
- By J.B. on 10-16-19
By: Bill Bryson
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Summary: When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi
- By: Dean Bokhari, FlashBooks
- Narrated by: Dean Bokhari
- Length: 23 mins
- Unabridged
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This is the audiobook summary of the story of Dr. Paul Kalanithi’s short, outstanding life. A profound story about life, death, and living with death, it transcends to become a legacy of living life with meaning and purpose, even beyond the grave.
By: Dean Bokhari, and others
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Being Mortal
- Medicine and What Matters in the End
- By: Atul Gawande
- Narrated by: Robert Petkoff
- Length: 9 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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In Being Mortal, best-selling author Atul Gawande tackles the hardest challenge of his profession: how medicine can not only improve life but also the process of its ending. Medicine has triumphed in modern times, transforming birth, injury, and infectious disease from harrowing to manageable. But in the inevitable condition of aging and death, the goals of medicine seem too frequently to run counter to the interest of the human spirit.
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A Walk through the Valley of the Shadow
- By George on 11-02-14
By: Atul Gawande
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Summary: When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi: Unofficial & Independent Summary & Analysis
- By: Leopard Books
- Narrated by: Heidi Allred
- Length: 17 mins
- Unabridged
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When Breath Becomes Air is the autobiography of author Paul Kalanithi and is the only book he has written. This summary will cover the important concepts in the best-selling book by the beloved writer. The book is written in two parts, and each section will be condensed into a concise narrative, so the listener can understand the gist of it quickly.
By: Leopard Books
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The Tennis Partner
- A Doctor's Story of Friendship and Loss
- By: Abraham Verghese
- Narrated by: Neil Shah
- Length: 13 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
-
Story
When Abraham Verghese, a physician whose marriage is unraveling, relocates to El Paso, Texas, he hopes to make a fresh start as a staff member at the county hospital. There he meets David Smith, a medical student recovering from drug addiction, and the two men begin a tennis ritual that allows them to shed their inhibitions and find security in the sport they love and with each other. This friendship between doctor and intern grows increasingly rich and complex, more intimate than two men usually allow.
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Honesty with Oneself
- By Dana Cradeur on 03-29-24
By: Abraham Verghese
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Shine
- A Short Story
- By: Jodi Picoult
- Narrated by: Audra McDonald
- Length: 1 hr and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Today is Ruth's first day of third grade at Dalton. The prestigious institution on New York's Upper East Side couldn't be more different from her old school in Harlem. Despite being the smartest girl in her grade, Ruth suspects that her classmates and teachers see only her dark skin. She also notices that Christina, the daughter of her mother's employer, treats Ruth very differently when they're hanging out with the popular girls rather than playing together. Ruth must navigate between two worlds.
-
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Short story prequel to Small Great Things
- By Wayne on 12-02-18
By: Jodi Picoult
-
The Body
- A Guide for Occupants
- By: Bill Bryson
- Narrated by: Bill Bryson
- Length: 14 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Bill Bryson once again proves himself to be an incomparable companion as he guides us through the human body - how it functions, its remarkable ability to heal itself, and (unfortunately) the ways it can fail. Full of extraordinary facts (your body made a million red blood cells since you started reading this) and irresistible Bryson-esque anecdotes, The Body will lead you to a deeper understanding of the miracle that is life in general and you in particular. As Bill Bryson writes, "We pass our existence within this wobble of flesh and yet take it almost entirely for granted."
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Must Read for the Sheer Fun of It
- By J.B. on 10-16-19
By: Bill Bryson
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Better
- A Surgeon's Notes on Performance
- By: Atul Gawande
- Narrated by: John Bedford Lloyd
- Length: 7 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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The struggle to perform well is universal: each one of us faces fatigue, limited resources, and imperfect abilities in whatever we do. But nowhere is this drive to do better more important than in medicine, where lives are on the line with every decision. In this book, Atul Gawande explores how doctors strive to close the gap between best intentions and best performance in the face of obstacles that sometimes seem insurmountable.
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A MUST read . . .
- By Kathy in CA on 08-11-14
By: Atul Gawande
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Cutting for Stone
- A Novel
- By: Abraham Verghese
- Narrated by: Sunil Malhotra
- Length: 23 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Marion and Shiva Stone are twin brothers born of a secret union between a beautiful Indian nun and a brash British surgeon. Orphaned by their mother’s death and their father’s disappearance, bound together by a preternatural connection and a shared fascination with medicine, the twins come of age as Ethiopia hovers on the brink of revolution.
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An Epic Medical Novel
- By Audiophile on 07-11-09
By: Abraham Verghese
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How to Change Your Mind
- What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence
- By: Michael Pollan
- Narrated by: Michael Pollan
- Length: 13 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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When Michael Pollan set out to research how LSD and psilocybin (the active ingredient in magic mushrooms) are being used to provide relief to people suffering from difficult-to-treat conditions such as depression, addiction, and anxiety, he did not intend to write what is undoubtedly his most personal book. But upon discovering how these remarkable substances are improving the lives not only of the mentally ill but also of healthy people coming to grips with the challenges of everyday life, he decided to explore the landscape of the mind in the first person as well as the third.
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A delightful trip
- By Paul E. Williams on 05-19-18
By: Michael Pollan
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The Bright Hour
- A Memoir of Living and Dying
- By: Nina Riggs
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell, Kirby Heyborne
- Length: 7 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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An exquisite memoir about how to live - and love - every day with "death in the room", from poet Nina Riggs, mother of two young sons and the direct descendant of Ralph Waldo Emerson, in the tradition of When Breath Becomes Air.
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Awe inspiring legacy of A Brave Young Woman.
- By Julia on 06-18-17
By: Nina Riggs
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Complications
- A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science
- By: Atul Gawande
- Narrated by: Robert Petkoff
- Length: 9 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Sometimes in medicine the only way to know what is truly going on in a patient is to operate, to look inside with one's own eyes. This audio is exploratory surgery on medicine itself, laying bare a science not in its idealized form, but as it actually is - complicated, perplexing, and profoundly human. Atul Gawande offers an unflinching view from the scalpel's edge, where science is ambiguous, information is limited, the stakes are high. In dramatic and revealing stories of patients and doctors, he explores how deadly mistakes occur and why good surgeons go bad.
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FALLIBILITY, MYSTERY AND UNCERTAINTY
- By AnnH on 10-04-20
By: Atul Gawande
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City of Girls
- A Novel
- By: Elizabeth Gilbert
- Narrated by: Blair Brown
- Length: 15 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Beloved author Elizabeth Gilbert returns to fiction with a unique love story set in the New York City theater world during the 1940s. Told from the perspective of an older woman as she looks back on her youth with both pleasure and regret (but mostly pleasure), City of Girls explores themes of female sexuality and promiscuity, as well as the idiosyncrasies of true love. In 1940, nineteen-year-old Vivian Morris has just been kicked out of Vassar College, owing to her lackluster freshman-year performance.
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A strong story
- By Anita Kristensen on 06-08-19
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We Are All the Same in the Dark
- A Novel
- By: Julia Heaberlin
- Narrated by: Jenna Lamia, Catherine Taber, MacLeod Andrews, and others
- Length: 10 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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It’s been a decade since Trumanell Branson disappeared, leaving only a bloody handprint behind. Her pretty face still hangs like a watchful queen on the posters on the walls of the town’s Baptist church, the police station, and in the high school. They all promise the same thing: We will find you. Meanwhile, Tru's brother, Wyatt, lives as a pariah in the desolation of the old family house, cleared of wrongdoing by the police but tried and sentenced in the court of public opinion and in a new documentary about the crime.
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On the edge of my ladder
- By Deirdre Hoinoski on 08-27-20
By: Julia Heaberlin
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Braving the Wilderness
- The Quest for True Belonging and the Courage to Stand Alone
- By: Brené Brown
- Narrated by: Brené Brown
- Length: 4 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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"True belonging doesn't require us to change who we are. It requires us to be who we are." Social scientist Brené Brown, PhD, LMSW, has sparked a global conversation about the experiences that bring meaning to our lives - experiences of courage, vulnerability, love, belonging, shame, and empathy. In Braving the Wilderness, Brown redefines what it means to truly belong in an age of increased polarization.
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Actual Step-By-Step To Authenticity!
- By Gillian on 09-14-17
By: Brené Brown
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Call Me God
- The Untold Story of the DC Sniper Investigation
- By: Jim Clemente, Tim Clemente, Peter McDonnell
- Narrated by: Maureen O'Connell
- Length: 7 hrs and 4 mins
- Original Recording
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Inside Michael’s craft supply store, cashier Ann Chapman rings up another customer. Then it happens. A loud crack; a gust of wind; the light in register five goes dark. Over the next 23 days, the entire DC area will be thrust into a reign of terror unprecedented in American history. Sniper attacks targeting and murdering everyday citizens will bring the entire region to its knees as a nation still reeling from the recent attacks of 9/11 and the anthrax scare is forced to confront a new type of brutal assault - this time in their own backyard.
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much like the GSK Audio book
- By Moranda Haines on 10-30-19
By: Jim Clemente, and others
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Educated
- A Memoir
- By: Tara Westover
- Narrated by: Julia Whelan
- Length: 12 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Story
Born to survivalists in the mountains of Idaho, Tara Westover was seventeen the first time she set foot in a classroom. Her family was so isolated from mainstream society that there was no one to ensure the children received an education, and no one to intervene when one of Tara’s older brothers became violent. When another brother got himself into college, Tara decided to try a new kind of life. Her quest for knowledge transformed her, taking her over oceans and across continents, to Harvard and to Cambridge University.
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The Other Side of Idaho's Mountains
- By Darwin8u on 03-28-18
By: Tara Westover
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The Giver of Stars
- Reese's Book Club (A Novel)
- By: Jojo Moyes
- Narrated by: Julia Whelan
- Length: 13 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Alice Wright marries handsome American Bennett Van Cleve hoping to escape her stifling life in England. But small-town Kentucky quickly proves equally claustrophobic, especially living alongside her overbearing father-in-law. So, when a call goes out for a team of women to deliver books as part of Eleanor Roosevelt’s new traveling library, Alice signs on enthusiastically. The leader, and soon Alice's greatest ally, is Margery, a smart-talking, self-sufficient woman who's never asked a man's permission for anything.
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About time!
- By Amazon Customer on 10-25-19
By: Jojo Moyes
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The Second Mountain
- How People Move from the Prison of Self to the Joy of Commitment
- By: David Brooks
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 12 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Author David Brooks explores the four commitments that define a life of meaning and purpose: to a spouse and family, to a vocation, to a philosophy or faith, and to a community. Our personal fulfillment depends on how well we choose and execute these commitments. Brooks looks at a range of people who have lived joyous, committed lives, and who have embraced the necessity and beauty of dependence. He gathers their wisdom on how to choose a partner, how to pick a vocation, how to live out a philosophy, and how we can begin to integrate our commitments into one overriding purpose.
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Pursue meaning, reject hyper-individualism
- By Adam Shields on 05-07-19
By: David Brooks
What listeners say about When Breath Becomes Air
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Narine Harrylall
- 01-20-16
Amazing
you get lost in his words, vsualizing these brief glimpses of a brave soul. Simply beautiful.
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35 people found this helpful
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- Warren Engledove
- 03-03-16
powerful
Easy to listen to, and just so damn powerful. I'll be listening to it again shortly.
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4 people found this helpful
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- kate
- 01-31-16
Compelling and clear
What did you love best about When Breath Becomes Air?
I loved the beauty and I loved the after glow
Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
I loved the second half to the book, the first half got a little tedious for me, with all the surgeries and medical data
Any additional comments?
I loved how Lucy epilogue brought her in and the Katie....I have been thinking about it and how it affected my life, I saw how courageous he was.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Jay
- 01-31-16
a meaningful life
I found this to be quite moving. the final chapter was all about perfect love.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Liqa
- 01-30-16
Raw and rich
Raw with emotions, rich with insight and thought provoking.
Do read if you want to ponder the end to your own life, or the lives of those you love.
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2 people found this helpful
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- titus
- 02-02-16
A book about finding meaning
Where does When Breath Becomes Air rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?
1
What did you like best about this story?
the final word of PK to his daughter is pure poetry; it can make a grown man cry.
Have you listened to any of Sunil Malhotra and Cassandra Campbell ’s other performances before? How does this one compare?
No
Any additional comments?
This book will leave you thinking about PK and his family long after you are done. In the end the book is a challenge to us all to find meaning in the world, to forget the ephemera, focus on who and what matters, and find the courage to face our own inevitable mortality.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Dawn
- 04-15-21
touching story of surgeon becomes cancer patient
touching story of professional family and end of life experience through cancer care... includes wife's view at end of book which was a good closure
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2 people found this helpful
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- Morgan
- 06-29-20
Incredible
Incredible story, incredible man and incredible writing. Highly recommend although it is a tear jerker for sure.
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2 people found this helpful
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- None
- 07-12-20
...
The balance between work and life is something that seems best answered by those who are in extreme situations like this.
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2 people found this helpful
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- julie
- 10-10-18
Incredible book!
Beautifully written book. Such a vulnerable and touching story that shines with strength of the human spirit.
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2 people found this helpful