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Original poster

The saddest book you've ever read . . .

308 replies

expatinscotland · 27/05/2005 13:51

or didn't finish b/c it was just too depressing?

'White Oleander' by Janet Fitch

OP posts:
MRSflamesparrow · 03/06/2005 15:07

Oh Olivia - People always look at me like I'm insane when I say that I sobbed my way through The Amber Spyglass!!! It was the love story though, and the pain going across the river of death, and the end with the bench. I think I need to read it again now...

The child in time did it for me too, as did My Sister's Keeper.

I keep meaning to try The Lovely Bones

Magscat · 03/06/2005 15:04

Dinosaur - Yes you mean C Gray - totally agree about the gas chamber episode (see my earlier posts on here).

What did you think about the wedding at the end ? Why did he put in references to the gas chamber ? - e.g. stepping over the threshold & holding something in her hand - it brought back images of the boys' ending. Why ?

dinosaur · 03/06/2005 13:39

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dinosaur · 03/06/2005 13:38

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Oliviab · 03/06/2005 13:37

Chonky - no idea what that book is about but my eyes are stinging from that quote! Definitely sounds like another one for me NOT to read. Why did I read this thread?

Oliviab · 03/06/2005 13:35

Amber Spyglass by Phillip Pullman - welling up just thinking about it but it's the end of such a beautiful love story so it's manageable.
Lovely Bones - I hate anything where children even get upset, don't know why I read this. My DH got upset because I was crying every night as read it, from start to finish - but you have to reach that conclusion or it will haunt you. Wish I hadn't read it.

chonky · 02/06/2005 13:21

Another vote for 'Before I Say Goodbye' by Ruth Picardie.
The part that always gets me the most is the two pages of letters for her DTs for when they're older, the line where she writes 'you're the best thing that has ever happened to me and the hardest thing to leave behind' (sorry if I'm mis-quoting, I haven't got it to hand).

Issymum · 02/06/2005 13:18

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bakedpotato · 02/06/2005 13:10

Ian McEwan's A Child In Time. Read it about 15 years ago, won't go near it again. Just so upsetting.
Peepo makes me cry too, but for different reasons.

Sponge · 02/06/2005 12:43

I cry at loads of books. The Poisonwood bible springs to mind and I found Margaret Attwood's The Handmaid's Tale completely heartbreaking.

Original poster
expatinscotland · 02/06/2005 12:38

The Lovely Bones made me despair of life. I didn't even get past the first few chapters. Life is bad enough with council tax, who needs that? Thank God I didn't pay for it or I'd have been really depressed.

OP posts:
elliott · 02/06/2005 12:33

Another vote for 'lovely bones' - yes it is a fantastic book. Just read 'lucky' as well (Alice Sebold's own story of her rape) and found that really compelling and a bit of an eye-opener about rape cases.

Magscat · 02/06/2005 12:21

Hester - I thought the way he brought up the gas chamber image at the wedding was supposed to indicate that Charlotte was making a mistake - i.e. she wasn't getting a happy ending - maybe she should have run off with the French guy (Octave ? - can't remember now)instead of the pilot. Whatever it was meant to mean it made be miserable thinking about the 2 brothers again and I hated that he'd done it too.

Issymum · 01/06/2005 22:23

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paolosgirl · 01/06/2005 21:49

The one I'm reading at the moment - The Luxury of Time by Jane Tomlinson. The utter sadness and despair at knowing that you are dying, that you won't see your kids grow up, and that you're leaving them without a mummy

pixel · 01/06/2005 21:46

There is a line at the end of Robert Heinlein's 'The cat who walks through walls' which gets to me.

"Dying is easy. Even a baby kitten can do it"

hester · 01/06/2005 21:02

Magscat, I HATED the ending of Charlotte Gray. I thought the murder of the two boys was counterpointed with the wedding in a really horrible, cynical way - kind of, and here are four people at a crossroads in their lives! Two of them step over the threshold into happy married life, and the other two - oh whooops - they've stepped over the threshold into a gas chamber! I thought he used the Holocaust as a really cynical plot device to get some tearjerking going.

Ooh, it makes me angry to think of it even now

pabla · 01/06/2005 20:44

"Dogger" gets me every time!

Magscat · 01/06/2005 20:20

Read Charlotte Gray when I was pregnant and cried for days. Also have a small boy so the whole plot about the two brothers really got to me.
Couldn't work out why the wedding at the end mirrored the boys' ending - anyone else read it & want to share an opinion?

skerriesmum · 01/06/2005 20:14

I would have to say Rohinton Mistry's A Fine Balance. It is a portrait of India in the 50s; brilliant but disturbing and SO sad!

AtHomeMum · 01/06/2005 20:13

after you'd gone by maggie o'farrell is the best i've read for ages. also angela's ashes. thought lovely bones was rather gruesome & as i don't believe in heaven, too far fetched.

ChocolateGirl · 01/06/2005 20:07

Another vote for Ruth Picardie's "Before I Say Goodbye" (diary/correspondence/newspaper columns of a thirty-something journalist, mum of 1-yr-old twins, diagnosed with terminal breast cancer).

I haven't re-read it since having children myself, I had tears rolling down my cheeks before them so I dread to think what it would do to me now! But it is a book I will never part with, her writing style is just stunning.

donnie · 28/05/2005 22:06

'The Bluest Eye' by Toni Morrison
another vote for The Grapes of Wrath
and Birdsong

zaphod · 28/05/2005 21:59

Walk Two Moons, by Sharon Creech. It's an excellent childrens book. I also loved Goodnight Mr Tom.

KBear · 28/05/2005 21:57

The Deep End of the Ocean - sob! Don't know who wrote it. Was also made into a film starring Michele Pfeifer.

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