Moving memoir of terminal cancer up for Wellcome book prize

LONDON (AP) - A doctor's posthumously published account of his life with terminal cancer is among six finalists for the medically themed Wellcome Trust Book Prize.

Paul Kalanithi's "When Breath Becomes Air" is among six books shortlisted for the prize, open to fiction or nonfiction works published in Britain that deal with medicine, health or illness. The American neurosurgeon completed the book before his death in 2015 at 37.

Finalists announced Tuesday include Suddhartha Mukherjee's genetics study "The Gene," Ed Young's look at microbes, "I Contain Multitudes" and David France's account of the fight against AIDS, "How to Survive a Plague."

Two novels are on the list: Sarah Moss' "The Tidal Zone" and Maylis de Kerangal's "Mend the Living."

The winner of the 30,000 pound ($36,000) prize will be announced April 24.