A Book on Life and Death Becomes a Best Seller

December 20, 2016

(The Wall Street Journal) – The nonfiction book by Dr. Kalanithi, who died within 22 months of his diagnosis with stage IV lung cancer at age 37, arrived to critical raves. Beyond its literary merits, the memoir owes its success in part to the author’s wife, Lucy Kalanithi, who fulfilled his wish to bring what was then an unfinished manuscript into the world. The book, a meditation on life and death by a brain surgeon determined to understand his own priorities in the face of his terminal illness, moved readers with its insight and courage.