Books that have made you cry

[CharliesAngles]

Only one book for me.
The Kite Runner.

I wanted you to know by Laura Pearson.

I woke my DH up sobbing whilst reading that one.

All her books are brilliant but that one hit hard.

Half A World Way by Mike Gayle. Equally heartbreaking

Also completely agree about Wild Swans and The Beekepper of Aleppo

There are so many but one that really stands out is A Town Like Alice.

I read it on the train home from university for the holidays. A lady came over to ask if I was ok as I was sobbing. I showed her the book cover. She nodded sympathetically and said she completely understood!

All three of the Once/Then/Now trilogy have made me sob.

Remember crying while reading 'We bought a zoo" to my son too.

And the "Daddy! My daddy!" bit at the end of The Railway Children always gets me too.

Just remembered "Story of your life" by Ted Chiang as well.

All the light we cannot see had me sobbing like a baby

Same!

Yes, I also read it as Teddy having been killed. And they all loved him so much. Cried over that one as well as Life After Life.

Goodnight Mr Tom
Sometimes a Great Notion
Probably more but those stick in my mind.

O Brother - John Niven’s account of his brother’s life and suicide.

Some of you have mentioned Maggie O’Farrell, and Hamnet and THTFHM (agree with the devastating scene). I’d add The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox which has some very harrowing scenes. Very worth reading though.

Birdsong.
The Book Thief.
The Fault in Our Stars.
Wonder.

Weirdly I don't often cry over books; I'm much more likely to tear up with a film. But the most recent book that had me welling up and having to take a moment was How High We Go In the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu. It's an astonishing, heart-breaking book.

Harry and the Bucketful of Dinosaurs - I read it for nostalgia’s sake once my DC had grown up, and it nearly killed me.

Goodbye Mog. Unbearable.

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas and Private Peaceful did a number on me, too.

^ This. Still stays with me.

oh, I am sorry to spoil your memory of the book, the last paragraphs of the second to last chapter the author highlights the number of lost lives of men /boys in the RAF and what might have been.

@BeyondMyWits I read Wild Swans in my late teens. One of my favourites.

My DH cried at reading Matthew’s death in Anne of Green Gables 😉

The Song Of Achilles
Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow

I’m not an avid reader so I’ve not read many books but Jude The Obscure had me crying. I was reading it in work on quiet nights (waitressing at the time) and had to keep putting it down to prevent myself sobbing in front of customers!

Good god.

I read it at quite a bleak time of my life. I was at uni - really broke. In poverty really. I was living in what I would now call a slum - with my room an oasis of calm and clean. It was summer - I was alone in the giant slum house. I worked 0830-1700 for the police and then 1800-2100 selling mortgages, 5 days a week. Weekends I slept and occasionally wandered round the city. It was just so bleak. The book was just so moving to me. I don’t know if I could bear to re-read it.

“The fault in our stars” completely ruined me

I hope that you're in a much better place now.

Another vote for The Book Thief
Stoner by John Williams
Felt quite emotional reading This Must Be The Place by Maggie O'Farrell and The Outcast by Sadie Jones

Absolutely x