The memoir of Dr Paul Kalanithi – 'When Breath Becomes Air' has been an instant New York Times bestseller, also short-listed for the Pulitzer Prize for autobiographies and the Wellcome Book Prize.
Paul, a highly respected neurosurgeon died of terminal lung cancer at the age of 37, in March 2015. This book was written in the last two years when he was still working in the neurological surgery wing at Stanford University in California.
The autobiography is his philosophical take on his mortality, life, his childhood, his career and his devastating cancer diagnosis. The biography has some candid revelations on his marriage to Lucy.
Lucy, who wrote the book as Paul wrote it said that in truth, cancer helped save our marriage. It was surprising when he revealed some of the rocky difficulties that the pair endured.
“I feel our whole relationship is on display in way that feels true,” she said.
Paul and Lucy met at the Yale medical school in 2003, and married three years later. They had been together for a decade when Paul was diagnosed with a terminal lung cancer. They decided to go ahead and have a baby despite having only a handful of years to live.
Lucy hoped she had a few moments more to share the hard copy of the book with her husband. For her, the marriage did not end when she became a widow – they will stay on through the beautifully penned down memoires of her husband.
