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Original poster

Books that made you cry?

127 replies

jamiesam · 27/07/2006 21:24

I've just re-read Birdsong and really enjoyed having a good sob. Am keen to read another weepy and looking for recommendations (ps am pg so inclined to be more emotional than normal )

OP posts:
whiffy · 01/09/2006 09:46

I'm a sucker for real life stuff. The three big ones for me were 'Expecting Adam' (cant remember author), 'Because Cowards get cancer too' by John Diamond, and 'When did you last see your father?' by Blake Morrison. all of them will have you howliong but are all uplifting too (I think).

suggest ignore the above recommendations if prone to depression or hypochondria, otherwise tuck in and get some Michael Frayn books in as humour antidote..

yoyo · 01/09/2006 09:34

Small Island by Andrea Levy was incredibly moving.
I read Birdsong the weekend before DD2 was born early - I think my sobs must have helped to get things going. DH read it on holiday this Summer and I saw his eyes fill on more than one occasion.
Time Traveller's Wife was poignant and sad but didn't reduce me to tears.

fullmoonfiend · 01/09/2006 09:33

must admit, I hated Time Traveller's Wife, just couldn't get into it, I tried twice!

We need to talk about Kevin - i forgot how much that made me cry!

Kite Runner - a fantastic book (yes, and sad...)

I love a good weep, me

MrsBadger · 01/09/2006 09:07

Like everyone else, the Time Traveller's Wife, also A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry. In fact the friend who gave it to me specifically wrote 'This will make you cry' in the front, which was thoughtful...

Orlando · 01/09/2006 08:59

It is, mt, in lots of ways. I found it interesting and absorbing because it stays with you for ages and is very much more than it seems on the surface iyswim. But there's one aspect of it that's just plain harrowing. And at the end of it all you don't really have the comfort of thinking, 'oh well, it's just fiction...'

chipkid · 31/08/2006 23:01

we need to talk about kevin-took me an age to read it-very slow to start with but I thought it was an amazing book-I am still traumatised by it!

Adorabelle · 31/08/2006 22:50

I'd recommend The Lovely Bones & The Time Travellers wife, both Fabulous books

Auntymandy · 31/08/2006 22:31

P.S. I love you
Best book I have read in ages.
I laughed and cried and thats not like me over a book

multitasker · 31/08/2006 22:30

Orlando have Charlotte Gray and never got into it, so is it worth persevering with?

Orlando · 31/08/2006 09:48

Charlotte Grey is even more grim and tragic than Birdsong.

Lay in bed sobbing quietly into the dark for hours after reading the bit where the two brothers....

Just awful.

Molesworth · 31/08/2006 09:46

twinsetandpearls - I'm with you on "Brothers" by Bernice Rubens

The Wrong Boy by Willy Russell made me LOL and cry

Toast by Nigel Slater

multitasker · 31/08/2006 09:29

Birdsong, although its been ages since I read it, maybe will reread it soon.
Captain Correllis Mandolin.Ditto.
Wasnt that taken with Time Travellers Wife.
Havent read anything fantastic this year actually, last years best book was The Shadow of the Wind, fantastic parallel narrative and very satisfying ending.

JoPG · 25/08/2006 22:22

The Railway Man - Eric Lomax
Autobiography of POW in WW2

moondog · 25/08/2006 22:03

Who needs a downer????

lol

lionheart · 25/08/2006 22:02

"Done because we are too many."

expatinscotland · 25/08/2006 15:49

I was forced to read tear jerkers in high school and at uni and it always peeved me to no end.

Thomas Hardy. I used his tomes to kill roaches in my dorm room. All that fatalistic, depressing lot of schlock. Think he had only one book that didn't involve everything going to shit and tragic deaths.

expatinscotland · 25/08/2006 15:47

If I feel like they're going to be tear-jerkers, I put them down, tbh.

Who needs a downer?

GillyT · 25/08/2006 15:46

I agree with Jacsmums - The Kite Runner was the most gut-wrenchng book I've ever read!!!

ShowOfHands · 24/08/2006 21:58

Second Marslady's suggesion of After You'd Gone by Maggie O'Farrell. Also read it on a train and cried and cried.

Trying desperately to read We Need To Talk About Kevin at the moment, but I just can't get into it.

Olihan · 24/08/2006 21:40

Before I say goodbye, by ruth picardie. She was a guardian(?) journalist who died of cancer but it's her articles and letters about the cancer process. It's absolutely heartbreaking. I've never cried so much at a book.

MrsSpoon · 24/08/2006 21:31

The most recent has to be We Need to Talk About Kevin.

mummymelling · 24/08/2006 09:33

forgot a child called it etc by dave pelzer sooooo sad makes you want to hug your kids tighy and never let them go

mummymelling · 24/08/2006 09:31

Hannahs Gift, will break your heart, true story written by her mother after her daughter has died of cancer, had me sobbing out loud. there is another book by jeannie brewer that i cant remember the title of , but her partner dies of aids ,thats real sad.

TitianRed · 24/08/2006 08:56

FMF - couldn't get the image of that scene in Jude out of my head last night. Old Father Time - God bless him...

sallystrawberry · 23/08/2006 23:33

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