¡°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
¡°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
¡°Possesses the gravity and wisdom of an ancient Greek tragedy . . . [Kalanithi] delivers his chronicle in austere, beautiful prose. The book brims with insightful reflections on mortality that are especially poignant coming from a trained physician familiar with what lies ahead.¡±
-The Boston Globe
¡°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
¡°It¡¯s [Kalanithi¡¯s] unsentimental approach that makes When Breath Becomes Air so original?and so devastating. . . . Its only fault is that the book, like his life, ends much too early.¡±
-Entertainment Weekly
¡°[When Breath Becomes Air] split my head open with its beauty.¡±
-Cheryl Strayed