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Books that make you cry

91 replies

Scimitarsandstars · 20/06/2025 12:46

I just finished Earth and Heaven by Sue Gee. I first tried to read it about 12 years ago but gave up as I was finding it too upsetting.

I picked it up again a few days ago as I love her writing and this book is so beautifully written. Once again, I was in floods of tears , although this time, I have finished it. I don't remember another book that has made me cry so much. I don't regret reading it though. It is so thoughtful and moving, and so evocative about the post WW1 period (although I am slightly doubtful about the ending).

So I am wondering, has anyone else read a book recently that's made you sob? And did it put you off reading it?

OP posts:
blueshedhermit · 23/06/2025 20:51

All the Colours of the Dark

southerngirl10 · 23/06/2025 20:42

Peeling Onions by Felicity Haughton Baker

thesecondmrsdewinter20 · 23/06/2025 20:41

The end of A God in Ruins by Kate Atkinson made me sob! And again when I reread it.

Latenightreader · 23/06/2025 20:21

Anne of Green Gables and Rilla of Ingleside both have sections which have me in bits.

A Small Person Far Away by Judith Kerr. There is a chapter where siblings visit an exhibition about their late father which is hugely moving. I also cry over A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.

Lastqueenofscotland2 · 23/06/2025 20:20

Shuggie Bain made me weep

LividVermiciousKnid · 23/06/2025 20:16

Oh, and I can't read to the end of the first line of the kids' book "Wherever you go my love will find you".

4 miscarriages and one miracle:

"I wanted you more than you ever will know. So I sent love to follow wherever you go".

Me sobbing into little boy's hair, him befuddled.

Laralee · 23/06/2025 20:10

The Salt Path. Also Never Let me go (as the previous poster suggested) had me in bits! I actually binned it it provoked such a sense of horror and devastation!

GasperyJacquesRoberts · 23/06/2025 20:08

I don't often cry while reading - I'm much more likely to make a fool of myself over a film. But the most recent book that got me welling up was How High We Go In The Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu. It's a book of short stories ostensibly about a devastating pandemic but really about grief in its many forms.

Then there was Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. It's an incredible book but I'm not sure I could bring myself to read it again.

Finally The Woman Who Walked Into Doors by Roddy Doyle was heart-breaking.

wonkyfruit · 23/06/2025 19:57

The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro made me cry at the end

LividVermiciousKnid · 23/06/2025 19:50

The Time Traveller's Wife. Read it in bed and had to genuinely wipe my nose on the pillowcase. Tmi truths.

Of Mice And Men every time (Teacher. "Take off your hat, Lennie. The air sure feels fine...")

Song of Achilles.

Books I probably can't reread after having a baby: Pet Sematary. Cujo. Recently read the short story that's a sort of sequel to Cujo and even that was too distressing.

FknOmniShambles · 23/06/2025 19:46

A Little Life. Absolutely gutting all the way through.

way2serious · 23/06/2025 19:45

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas.

Quite a few children’s books. I often have tears streaming down my face when reading to a class of children!

EineReiseDurchDieZeit · 23/06/2025 19:43

Recently OP Rachel Clarke - Story Of A Heart, sobbing by page 10.

EineReiseDurchDieZeit · 23/06/2025 19:41

@Zimunya that’s my favourite book!

Nomorebeer22 · 23/06/2025 19:36

JazzyJelly · 23/06/2025 14:12

'A thousand splendid suns' by Khalid Hossaini had me covered in mascara on the train.

And The Kite Runner by the same author.

TonTonMacoute · 23/06/2025 19:31

As someone who bursts into tears at the drop of a hat I don't really cry at books.

In fact the only one I can think of (apart from a university text book on tax law) was Olive Schreiner's From Man to Man.

The opening sequence about a little girl who finds her new baby sibling 'sleeping' and brings her flowers and gifts and tries to warm her little hands up as they are so cold. I was in floods.

Maraudingmarauders · 23/06/2025 14:46

I just sobbed through In Memoriam by Alice Winn(I love a WW1 novel)
A Little Life by Hanya Yanahihara - wept on and off
Small Island by Andrea Levy -ending got me big time, full sobs
The Women by Kristin Hannah and The Things They Carried by Tom O’Brien (both Vietnam)

so many more, I like my books emotionally destructive.

jeezelouisepumpkin · 23/06/2025 14:31

i read Captain Corelli’s Mandolin on holiday in Kefalonia. I was absolutely devastated by it as the island was thd most beautiful place I’d ever seen but the book describes absolute horrors from the Nazi occupation.

Very predictable, but Jude the Obscure and The Kite Runner both had me in floods for quite a while.

ImWearingPantaloons · 23/06/2025 14:29

Good night Mr Tom for me - cried at it as a child, cried at it as an adult, cry during the TV adaptation.

Gets me every time

DapperDame · 23/06/2025 14:28

The mill on the floss. Don't read it if you need cheering up....

jeezelouisepumpkin · 23/06/2025 14:28

AltitudeCheck · 20/06/2025 23:02

Siri Hudstvedt 'What I loved' is beautiful but it has a part that literally left me feeling like I'd been punched in the gut and sobbing... it's over 20 years since I first read it and it still is the book I think of whenever anyone mentions an emotional reaction to a book.

I read this over 20 years ago and adored it. It’s sat on my shelf untouched since then. Maybe I should read it again

Wafflemeister · 23/06/2025 14:25

A thousand splendid suns had me crying more than once.

JazzyJelly · 23/06/2025 14:12

'A thousand splendid suns' by Khalid Hossaini had me covered in mascara on the train.

PhilosophicalCheeseSandwich · 23/06/2025 14:08

I'm a tough nut to crack - the only book that's made me cry is Hamnet. I'll be looking at some of the recommendations on here, I do enjoy a cathartic cry.

Matildatoldsuchdreadfullies · 23/06/2025 14:04

Paul Gallico - Small Miracle, The Snow Goose, Flowers for Mrs Harris*, Love I’d Seven Dolls.

All tear jerkers.

*The film was rubbish. I know MN wisdom was it was great. But it just wasn’t. It missed all the subtleties of the book.