When Breathe Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi

A breath-taking new book (terrible pun) has just been released. It’s a tragic but unfortunately familiar story of a brilliant young man who loses his battle with cancer. What is different here is the author is a physician who steps over the bridge from healer to patient. I first heard of Paul Kalanithi when he published an essay in the New York Times.

Paul Kalanithi was a man of many talents who chose the most demanding of all medical specialties: neurosurgery. He was nearing the end of his training (a seven year program after medical school) when he learned that he had metastatic cancer. 

I read the book in one sitting, but will re-read it again and again. The prose is lyrical.