內容簡介
內容簡介 ◎ 2016年一月亞馬遜網路書店編輯最佳選書．讀者五顆星推薦在死亡的面前，是什麼讓人生值得一活？當你的未來不再是通往人生目標的階梯，轉變成平坦而永久的現在時，你會怎麼做？當你的生命逐漸消逝，迎接並養育新生命，代表什麼意義？當你吐的最後一口氣，也變成空氣，你究竟留下了什麼？「這一本動人且真誠的反思之作，在死亡的陰影壟罩下，思考是什麼讓生命值得一活的人生選擇，會讓讀者沉思他們的價值觀與必然的死亡。」——Booklist書評「我逐漸了解，面對我終將死亡的事實，就某種意義上來說，什麼也沒有改變，也改變了一切。作家薩繆爾．貝克特 (Samuel Beckett) 所寫的七個字，開始不斷縈繞於我的腦中：『我沒有辦法走下去。我會繼續走下去。』(“I can’t go on, I’ll go on.”)」——Paul KalanithiPaul Kalanithi 36歲時，只差一年即將完成長達十年左右的腦神經外科醫生訓練，卻被診斷出肺癌第四期。前一天他還是治療即將死亡的病患的醫生，隔一天卻成了努力想存活的病患。他和妻子一起想像的未來，就此消失無蹤，人生也似乎斷了線。在這本自傳裡，Kalanithi記錄了他這些年來身份與想法的轉變：從一位天真的醫學院學生，總是思考著這樣的問題：「既然所有的生物體終將死亡，該怎麼活，才算是一個有意義的人生？」(他當時總認為問題的答案就在於神經外科)、成為腦神經外科醫生，在形塑人類身份最重要的部位工作、變成病患，到一名即將面對死亡的新手父親。Paul Kalanithi在2015年三月撰寫回憶錄之際過世，然而，他的文字留了下來，持續引導著我們。《When Breath Becomes Air》令人難以忘懷、積極且深刻動人，思考人生、死亡與時間的意義，是對於面對死亡的挑戰，以及醫病關係的反思之作。THE NEW YORK TIMES NUMBER ONE BESTSELLERTHE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER'Finishing this book and then forgetting about it is simply not an option...Unmissable' New York TimesAt the age of thirty-six, on the verge of completing a decade’s training as a neurosurgeon, Paul Kalanithi was diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer. One day he was a doctor treating the dying, the next he was a patient struggling to live.When Breath Becomes Air chronicles Kalanithi’s transformation from a medical student asking what makes a virtuous and meaningful life into a neurosurgeon working in the core of human identity – the brain – and finally into a patient and a new father.What makes life worth living in the face of death? What do you do when when life is catastrophically interrupted? What does it mean to have a child as your own life fades away?Paul Kalanithi died while working on this profoundly moving book, yet his words live on as a guide to us all. When Breath Becomes Air is a life-affirming reflection on facing our mortality and on the relationship between doctor and patient, from a gifted writer who became both.
