• When Breath Becomes Air, divided in two parts – In Perfect Health I Begin & Cease Not Till Death, is a language for the death, for the imprints it leaves on us & our families even before visiting us in person.

• In this memoir, Paul Kalinithi has written his journey from being a doctor to a patient facing death with acceptance. He was not only a neurosurgeon but also someone who was fascinated by the meaning of life & death in such a way that he yearned to guide his patients & their family to confront the understanding of death & their illnesses.

• In the first part, you get to read about Paul as he grew up, fascinated by the vocabulary of nature, literature, & life. There are lots of terms which might be unfamiliar to you (like me) if you ain’t into medical science terminology. But, once you read about them, you feel much more connected to the world he’s leading you into. This, I tell you, will make you read a bit slowly & may irk you if you don’t like to come across many medical terms while reading.

• Paul’s thoughts on the fragile bond between an individual’s identity & state of body, doctor’s responsibility & relationship with death were so honest. He penned his failures for us to read & I felt how it must be for doctors to see death so closely each day. How they visit it everyday, with each equipment they hold, each word they jot down for their patients.

• Paul’s fascination led him to wander the world of words & neuroscience with utmost sincerity.
• Paul died in March 2015, but as he believed “Words have a longevity I do not.” This book will be alive for others to read the life lived in the crevices of death. I was absolutely touched when he couldn’t make it far enough to live with his little daughter. But, his words stayed. Even if you feel it’s a bit heavy to read at times, this is for you to connect with Paul, his idea of life & death.