Your favourite novels about grinding hardship

[JesusInTheCabbageVan]

Apparently these really cheer me up. I'm not talking about misery/abuse memoirs, but things like the following:

Cold Mountain, Charles Frazer
The Good Earth, Pearl S Buck
Gap Creek, Robert Morgan
Night Waking, Sarah Moss.

Do you know what I mean? Books that make you think, 'I'm so glad I don't have to work that hard. I'm sure I'll remember more in a bit.

The Road Home, Rose Tremain is another one.

The Jungle, Upton Sinclair.

Maybe some stuff like Down and out in Paris and London and The Road to Wigan Pier, both by George Orwell.

Angela's Ashes is probably the only one I can think of.

Jude the Obsure by Hardy.

I mean, 'favourite' probably isn't accurate but it definitely came to mind!

I've already read all those! Maybe I just need therapy.

I second Jude the Obscure

The Road to Nab End: A Lancashire Childhood Paperback –
by William Woodruff , and its sequel.

Not my cup of tea but The Dwelling Place by Catherine Cookson.

I had to give up A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistryvbecause it was so depressing perhaps perfect for you OP?

Germinal by Emile Zola.
Had to study it for my Lit degree - still haunted by it many years later.

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit Read it, loved it

Haven't read William Woodruff though!

Angela’s Ashes
The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder

The Grapes of Wrath

Helen Forrester, Twopence to cross the mersey.

The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver). It's amazing

Definitely grapes of wrath and the poisonwood bible.

Crime and Punishment? My favourite book.

Love on the Dole
The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists

Agree with lots of these and adding Les Miserables (the clue is the name) and lots of Dickens.

@IHaveBrilloHair I was going to suggest Twopence to Cross the Mersey (and the subsequent books).

Read it for school when I was about 13 and I’m still horrified at the life they hand and the uselessness of the parents.

Ooh, Zola. But it's the 13th of a 20 novel series - you trying to help me or kill me??

Helen Forrester was my very first inkling that I like these kind of books. I wanted to kill her mum though, what an evil cow.

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich

It's perfection.

Charles Bukowski - Ham on Rye? Or anything by him really. I find a lot of the beat writers profoundly depressing.

Her Mum was an evil cow Jesus, Anoisag
Without Helen, baby Edward would have died.

Another vote for Angela's Ashes here