The New York Times bestseller by poet Nina Riggs, mother of two young sons and the direct descendant of Ralph Waldo Emerson, is "a stunning...heart-rending meditation on life...It is this year's When Breath Becomes Air" (The Washington Post).

We are breathless but we love the days. They are promises. They are the only way to walk from one night to the other.

Poet and essayist Nina Riggs was just thirty-seven years old when initially diagnosed with breast cancer--one small spot. Within a year, she received the devastating news that her cancer was...