The saddest book you've ever read . . .

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

no one has mentioned the ENglish Patient! Had me going.

I found Charlotte Gray very disturbing at the end and even if it is a cynical plot device, what's worst of all is that it did happen to some poor child.

Couldn't read the lovely bones, not now I have my own kids.

The time travellers wife was quite sad at the end, although not in a tragic way it still had me weeping.

Brothers by Bernice Reubens, spent a week sobbing on the tube to that!

I can't bring myself to read Goodbye Mog!

I cry at pretty much anything (including Mastercard ads - I am that lame) but My Sister's Keeper had me sobbing so hard I couldn't breathe. Cried my way through Birdsong too. When the Wind Blows by Raymond Briggs is another one, we read that in school and most of the class were crying. Just the pictures of the little old couple getting sicker and sicker - horrible.

I picked up Goodbye Mog in Waterstones and had to put it back down quick.

another vote for 'jude the obscure', a numbingly painful book.
agree with caligula - well most of jean rhys's stuff really. good to find someone else reading it!!
anything by george gissing is pretty depressing too.

Has anybody read 'When the Wind Blows' by Raymond Briggs? He's so good at that sad atmosphere- The Snowman upset me as a child- but this one is just frighteningly sad.

Ditto lots of the other books on here, especially After You'd Gone by Maggie O'Farrell, which is beautifully constructed.

I just didn't like 'The Lovely Bones' at all. Found it rather silly.
I did enjoy Birdsong though.

Wild Swans made me cry, especially the part when Jung Chang's father, an idealist, realises his whole life has been devoted to a flawed cause and he finally sees the Cultural Revolution for the disaster it really was. Such a waste of an intelligent, sensitive life.

Ive just read the little prisoner which was really sad (by Jane Elliot) and it made me cry

God, could not read the book 'before I say goodbye' that Marthasparklypinkwigamoo has recommended... just read the books description on amazon and it's brought me to tears... my mum died of cancer in 2002 and I was 21... not sure how anyone would feel leaving 2 year olds behind.

kama - Once in House on Fire. I was at school with her younger sister. Another friend rang me when it came out and said "you won't believe this - you have to read this book. It's by L's big sister [she changed her sister's name in the book]" I was completely horrified - her sister was the year below me at school and I had no idea of what a nightmare her home life was. In fact, I really didn't like her - and I wanted to write to her after I read the book and say how sorry I was that she'd been going through all that. It really shocked me.

Have just scrolled down - had a feeling other people might have mentioned it too.

Before I Say Goodbye, by Ruth Picardie Ds1 was about a year old when I read it and it just broke my heart.

Mine are two childrens books. Goodnight Mr.Tom. by Michelle Magorian, and Walk Two Moons, by Sharon Creech.

I read Uncle Tom's Cabin when I was in my early twenties and just sobbed at parts of it. Have never cried like that since about a novel.

The Good Women of China by Xinran.... truly excellent book but so very very powerful, great if you like reading about women in different cultures etc

I can't think of the title now, but it xas about a woman who used to work for the abortion clinics in China, forcing women to abort their second babies right up to the birth date. She had her own second child and fled to America where she told her tale. It was an horrendous book. I read it because I was working for a charity at the time that dealt with this very issue and I needed to know more about it, but certain things written there still haunt me to this day, I don't think, no matter how hard I try, that I will ever forget the things I read there .

Intimacy by Hanif Kureshi read it a few years ago

The pursuit of happiness Douglas kennedy

It was a boy called it, that was so so sad but a happy ending.

Before I say Goodbye - Ruth Picardie - Another vote for this - have read it several times....and will probably keep going back to it...

Oscar and Lucinda. (sniff)

Was so sure I had posted on this thread before I had to reread it again, in fact I am so bunged up with a nasty cold at the mo forgive me if I have and missed it.

Oh shut up numptie!

Anyway, the saddest book I ever read was Through A Glass Darkly by Jostein Gaarder. About a young girl lying in bed seriously ill during the run up to Christmas and the angel that visits her. So sad, I have tried in my brief description not to spoil it for anyone who hasn't read it!

The Little Prisoner - Jane Elliott, so shocking and sad :-(

pol25 was it called " a boy called it?"