Being mortal : illness, medicine and what matters in the end

New York Times Number One bestseller Longlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize 2014In Being Mortal, Gawande examines his experiences as a surgeon, as he confronts the realities of aging and dying in his patients and in his family, as well as the limits of what he can do. And he emerges with story that crosses the globe and history, exploring questions that range from the curious to the profound: What happens to people's teeth as they get old?

Did human beings really commit senecide, the sacrifice of the elderly?

Why do the aged so dread nursing homes and hospitals?

How should someone give another person the dreadful news that they will die?

This is a story told only as Atul Gawande can - penetrating people's lives and also the systems that have evolved to govern our mortality.

Those systems, he observes, routinely fail to serve - or even acknowledge - people's needs and priorities beyond mere survival. And the consequences are devastating lives, families, and even whole economies.

But, as he reveals, it doesn't have to be this way. Atul Gawande has delivered an engrossing tale of science, history and remarkable characters in the vein of Oliver Sacks. Published in partnership with the Wellcome Collection. WELLCOME COLLECTION is the free museum and library for the incurably curious.

It explores the connections between medicine, life and art in the past, present and future.

It is part of Wellcome, a global charitable foundation that exists to improve health for everyone by helping great ideas thrive.