The saddest book you've ever read . . .

The Friday Night Knitting Club - do NOT read this on the train!!!

Oh shit - just seen I wrote exact same thing in 2005

I know it's not awfully literally but in Jilly Cooper's Polo when Ricky France-Lynch kills his child in a drink driving accident gets me every time

I bawl my eyes out at Good Night Mr Tom every single time!

"I calls her Trudy..."
"Mr Tom! I want you, Mr Tom!"
"He called me Dad...he called me Dad."

I also remember crying uncontrollably at Go Toward the Light, written by Chris Oyler. Her son Ben was a hemophiliac who contracted the AIDS virus and died when he was 9. Heartbreaking.

Oh, and Dolores Claiborne. "Sometimes when I'm talkin to Serena and I hear her slur her words, I wonder if there's any escape for any of us from the pain and sorrow in our lives." :(

Goodnight Mr Tom. I know it's a children's book, but I sobbed so loudly, I woke DH up, when I read it.

yy to His Dark Materials and Birdsong too.
Year Of Wonders
Juse the Obscure

The Hand That First Held Mine by Maggie O'Farrell, it was slow at first but by the middle you knew it wasnt going to end well and i was so throughout then absolutely sobbed at the climax. Very well written.

Another one for the Lovely Bones, I read that when DS was a few months old which was a big mistake!

another vote for 'before i say goodbye'.

also, as name may suggest - in 'deathly hallows' where it becomes apparent that snape loved lily and pomised to look after her son and his patronus was a doe.

Since I Don't Have You by Louise Candlish - I picked it up thinking it would be a light-hearted holiday read not realising that the story centred around something so sad and yet it's one of the loveliest (if incredibly bittersweet) books I've ever read.

Goodbye Mog
lol ;))

Birdsong had me sobbing uncontrollably on the tube many years ago, like a mad woman. Fortunately, with it being London, everyone ignored me

Agree with Lovely Bones, also Room by Emma Donoghue, and Tis by somebody Doyle must win the most depressing book award!!!

Michael Rosen's "Sad Book". I can't even think about it without getting a bit teary. It's about his son, Eddie, who died.

Boy with Striped Pyjamas

Non-fiction:
John Diamond and Justine Picardie books about cancer (although may have been the timing - read them when FIL was diagnosed with terminal cancer).

I've just read The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas - horrible. Not sad, just horrible.

The Happy PRince and The Selfish Giant are fantastic short stories to have a nice weep over, as is The Silver Sword.

Of Mice and Men. I started crying on the subway reading it. And not a discreet tear or two running down my face, but the "ugly cry", loud and messy.

A year later. on the subway again, I saw another young woman reading it with tears running down her face and I wanted to give her the biggest hug. I don't even remember the details of the book now but still just thinking of it this huge ball of sadness swells in my lungs.

Wally lamb's "she's come undone"
Aimee Liu's "cloud mountain"

What both have in common with "the color purple" and "birdsong" is that the story is told over decades.

Yes, I remember her writing really funny newspaper columns about her pregnancy while I was expecting my first-it was such a shock to read the weekly column about her illness soon after. Like you I have been haunted by that line in particular ever since.

I've just read The Love Verb by Jane Green, and that made me cry.

Time Travellers Wife and The Bridges Of Madison County, oh my I cried at those!

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

I started reading this thread then realised it was from 2005 and I'm on it at the very begining!!

Oh dear, I have been here sooooo long..............

Marianna by Susanna Kearsley. Sad and happy.. Read it half a doen times and STILL makes me cry, but I love it. NOT depressing.

The Plague Dogs by Richard Adams. It has a happy ending which made me WEEP and I was on the tube when I finished it...

Since I dont have you
My best friends girl
A Thousand Splendid Suns

The God of Small Things

Never Let Me Go - and one of the vital things about this book is the way the realisation builds about what is truly going on, so it sort of dawns on the reader along with the children- I would reccomend anyone to read the book before seeing the film as the film seems to spell the situation out very early- and avoid the trailers if you plan to read the book.

Of Mice and Men

The Diving Bell & The Butterfly

Lucky

Atonement

And "Rilla of Ingleside" from the Ann of Green Gables series as it had never occured to me that a main character could be killed and I think the first time a character you love dies it hits you hard.

"Goodbye Mog" wouldve had me more prepared for that possibility if it had existed in my childhood!