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.

King of the Barbareens by Janet Hitchman (may be out of print) - autobiographical account of a childhood in care between the wars.

Hangover Square by Patrick Hamilton. Misery and alcohol in Earls Court as war looms.

A Fine Balance broke me. Utterly devastating.

Grapes of Wrath
I can't imagine it cheering anyone up but I've never forgotten reading it.

@JesusInTheCabbageVan

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.

They're loosely linked, I think, rather than being a series as such

I read Therese Raquin yrs ago as a student, enjoyed it but rather embarrassingly can't remember ANYTHING about it

Recently read L'assommoir, which was great and would fit your brief

Second “Germinal” by Zola and also “L’ assommoir” by the same author.
Amazing books.

@speakout so did a lot of people. Probably a few of the ones posting on here. If you care to do an Advanced Search on me, you'll find I've posted very little (if anything) about my childhood. There's a reason for that. I can assure you it wasn't 'glamorous' either.

Elmet , Fiona Mozley

@PepeLePew me too. Read it years ago and even now it keeps me awake at night.

yy to blummin’ marvelous Zola.
Also A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Betty Smith
The Secret River, Kate Grenville

Tuppence to Cross the Mersey

@WellThankyouAJPTaylor I loved Zola, have you read La Bête Humaine?

Was coming on to say Helen Forrester, but see I've been beaten to it many times! Still think about those books now and I must have read them 30 years ago.

@Etinox ah another Zola fan!

The Women's Room by Marilyn French.

My husband of the time used to call it 'the divorce book' because I'd get all indignant and uppity every time I read it. (I read it a lot.) The grind was SO real, though.

He's now my ex.

@Phial 100% Agree re: One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich

We did Zola and Solzhenitsyn at school, we were boarders and the latter felt apt

This isn’t grinding because it is so balanced as usual but I just finished The Pied Piper set in WW2. So very, very good. My favourite author Nevil Shute.

God, yes to A Book of Negroes. I read it years ago and it has stayed with me

Roots by Alex Haley
The Endless Steppe by Esther Hautzig

I second One Day In The Life of Ivan Denisovich it is amazing and has always stayed with me.

@Pyjamasarethenewblack was just about to recommend The Endless Steppe and see you have just done so ~ I read it many years ago as a child but have never forgotten it.

MollyWindley I read it at school about 1986/7 and have also never forgotten it!

How Green Was My Valley, by Richard Llewellyn. Beautiful account of growing up in the welsh valleys as miners began to know real hardship.

Catherine’s Cookson..our kate

Definitely Angela's Ashes.

Also, I'm currently reading The Color Purple which involves lots of hard times & also makes me very thankful for what I have. Very relevant to current affairs, I think.

Books such as The Tattooist of Auschwitz and The Book Thief also make me very grateful for the life I was fortunate enough to be born into, but I don't know if these are the kind of thing you are after.

The Grapes of Wrath is probably the bleakest thing I've ever read. Incredible, though.

I came on to recommend A Fine Balance, but someone beat me to it! So, so miserable.

I'm loving the recommendations
Mine isn't a book but the Ken Loach movie "Sorry we missed you" is a modern day story of grim reality for many people in this country