An important and superb book written by the HMS and HSPH professor, surgeon, and New Yorker writer. This is a book that is of great importance for doctors and medical students as well as every person above 60, every person with a life threatening illness, and every person who is caring for an elderly family member or someone with a life threatening illness. In lucid prose and within a framework that switches from the personal to the professional, from the specific to the general, Gawande takes aim at our health care system which is designed to prolong life and where the default position is to do more rather than to focus on the quality of life for the specific individual and where doing less may be better for the individual and society. The author time and again returns to the issue of autonomy vs safety for the elderly and the importance of ‘the role of dying’ and the individual’s ability to create the narrative of their life right up until the end. He slams nursing homes, assisted living facilities, ICU’s, oncologists and surgeons for their focus on safety and prolongation rather than autonomy and quality. He urges us as doctors and caregivers to enable the elderly to live out their days wherever they can call home, to really live. Autonomy is the freedom to be the author of our lives. The battle of being mortal is the battle to maintain the integrity of one’s life. An excellent book!