What books have made you REALLY REALLY cry?

[QuimReaper]

The only one I can think of for myself is "Goodnight Mr Tom", when Zach dies, but especially when Willie has to leave to go back to London

“Never let me go” by Kazuo Ishiguro. Couldn’t stop crying with big, convulsing sobs. Also by him “when we were orphans” is very sad - i suspect all of his books are but ive not ready any more yet as i dont feel ready to deal with them at the moment!
there is something so sad about his books, they are so loaded with emotion yet completely un-schmaltzy - he’s not just trying to cynically pull on your heartstrings with sentimentality (unlike a lot of the books mentioned on here). He is a really excellent writer I think.

The road

Ps I love you. Really struggled with that. My FIL just died of a brain tumour so I don't think I'll ever read that again.

Me before you. When I read the ending of that I threw the book across the room and burst into tears, I just didn't think he'd actually do it 😭

A lot of those already mentioned, but also:

Sophie’s Choice
Behind the Scenes at the Museum and Case Histories (both Kate Atkinson)

The end of The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell made me weep copiously and still haunts me four years after I last read it. I was miscarrying at the time and was very emotional, which might have been why it hit me so hard.

A recent one that made me cry a lot is The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai.

Behind the scenes at the museum by Kate Atkinson

Oooh snap!

The LovelyBones - I was inconsolable
Noughts and Crosses - the protagonists love being killed and my counsellor dying a few weeks before just made me bawl my eyes out.
Of Mice and Men
Harry Potter (Dumbledore, Dobby and Fred's deaths)

• Captain Corelli’s Mandolin (proper snotty crying)
• nearly every Guy Gavriel Kay book, the man knows how to tug at my heartstrings!

@Mof3K, I sobbed at The Goldfinch. I cannot WAIT for the movie after watching that trailer, thank you!

I doubt anywhere would have heard of these but-

Meet me under the ombu tree by Santa Montefiore

The Lavender Keeper by Fiona Mcintosh

The cry easily but these are the ones that stayed with me!

A child called it

*anyone

Family, by Susan Hill. Her own account of her struggle to complete her family. So beautifully written, and ultimately a story of hope fulfilled. I carried a copy around for years as a sort of talisman, and I too got there in the end. I passed my precious, tear-stained copy onto a friend, and she too eventually had a child after much heartache.

Red sky in the morning by Elizabeth Laird. Think it's a YA novel, but it made me sob. Its about a girl growing up with a disabled brother.

As a child - The yearling - apparently I was so inconsolable my parents were a bit worried. I think i still remember that night ! Sobbing and yelling. (Oops close to the Sistine Chapel thread? !!)

Rosybell Red Sky in the Morning is a wonderful book. I grew up with a severely disabled sibling and that book is one of the most accurate and moving depictions of it that I’ve come across.

Kes for me too, when the lad's brother stamps on all his aspirations. I started Elie Wiesel's Night recently but had to stop after about ten pages, when they were in the train to the concentration camp, I just couldn't bear to read any more.

The Time Travellers Wife... it really makes me sob, I've read it over and over... my favourite book.

The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot. I sobbed so much at the end.

A Monster Calls - Patrick Ness

It was so emotional at the end - I was a sobbing mess before I even got there. I cannot bring myself to watch it yet.

I haven't read it - I can't. I saw the film and oh god I sobbed and sobbed. I can still remember the scene and the line that absolutely destroyed me. Beautiful but I'll never watch it again and I'll never read the book.

Oh, A Fine Balance is such a wonderful and terribly sad book. Wept buckets.
And The English Patient. Love love loved it.
Must put my phone down and read!!

Never let me go made me cry but not because it was so sad.... Because I had to write an essay on it and I hated it so much 😂

Great thread! I've definitely had a good cry whilst reading quite a few of the books mentioned. A couple to add:
The Five People You Meet In Heaven
The Little Prince

Several of those already mentioned and also
The Snow Goose - Paul Gallico
The Happy Prince - Oscar Wilde

Who Walk Alone - true story about a chap who finishes with his fiancee but does not tell her it is because he has leprosy. The passage where his train passes through her home town on his way to the leper colony ...