Books that have stayed with you.

[FrostyChocolateMilkshake]

Currently reading a book called Unravelling Oliver and I already know it will stay with me; the writing is fantastic but the subject matter is surrounding domestic violence. A powerful read so far.

Another book was The Girl Next Door by Jack Ketchum. Based on the murder of Sylvia Likens in the 1960s (don't Google if you are easily upset).

So AIBU to ask, what is a book that has stayed with you and why?

Any recommendations (I enjoy controversial books in particular) would be greatly appreciated too.

Rebecca - Daphne du Maurier. I can’t say why without giving away a massive spoiler, so I’ll try but in a cryptic way. I always thought I’d want people to be held accountable for their actions.

The Siege - Helen Dunmore. A book set during the Nazi siege of Moscow during WW2. No food, no firewood. Trying to keep your family alive. Utterly haunting. I didn’t read it thinking “This will stay with me” - I enjoyed it but wasn’t aware that I would still think about it five or six years later.

@alltoomuchrightnow

The Other Hand upset me so much, but it's a great book

I will never forget reading The other hand. I read it about 10 years ago and have recently bought a copy to read again. It devastated me.

A Child Called It by Dave Pelzer absolutely shocking what happened to him I read it in a matter of hours and will always stay with me

Marley & Me as a dog owner it has me in hysterics on holiday I was laughing so much a lady came and asked me what I was reading

Washington Poe books by M.W. craven are a brilliant read

Loads. I was always reading. I'm going to name one which is Death in Venice by Thomas Mann.

A man spots another man, around the same age before he boards a boat to Venice. The man is trying to look a lot younger than his years, with dyed hair and rouge. The protagonist, Gustav stays at a hotel in Venice and becomes obsessed with a family there, especially the boy.

The book is a novella but full of ideas about aging and beauty. I'm not going to tell you what happens but I write, and I've been rewriting Death in Venice in various guises for years. The ideas fascinate me.

There are loads more, I often think about the journey Raskolnikov took from his house to the old lady's apartment from Crime and Punishment. I think about what it means to murder for the sake of murder. What is a life? Do we have the right to take a life. I went to St Petersburg and took the same walk.

Beloved by Toni Morrison. Read it for A level English and have never forgotten it, so powerful and beautifully written.

The Heart's Invisible Furies by John Boyne. I listened to it as an audiobook recently and it was incredible. Loved the characters and the way the story spanned so many years of their lives, so poignant and managed to be incredibly funny in places too.

Moonrise by Sarah Crossan. A young adult novel, written in verse so quite a short read but so powerful and I'd recommend it to any age.

Anna Karenina - just a perfect novel and everyone should read it.

Cider with Rosie - incredibly lovely book and a good antidote to some of the darker reads recommended in this thread!

A Thousand Splendid Suns will stay with me forever

The Chamber by John Grisham. I've mentioned this on MN before, but this book completely changed my views on capital punishment. Despite the murderer being guilty, and a member of the kkk, I sobbed when he was killed.

Dark Places by Gillian Flynn. I actually cried in places because it reminded me of the poverty in my own childhood. I thought I had dealt with the issues but I guess the stigma stays with you.

Some books by Lesley Glaister, especially Digging to Australia: the teenager who lives with her naturist grandfather, who suddenly finds out at the age of thirteen about her own mother, and even the date of her birthday.

When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi. It's a memoir of a surgeon who has a terminal diagnosis, finding himself in the position of the patients he usually treats. He wrote the book in his final months but passed away before it was complete. The final section is written by his wife after his passing. So beautiful and heartbreaking - it is the only time I have ever cried when reading a book.

Beloved by Toni Morrison. Just extraordinary. Gets in your head with a blend of beauty and horror. It makes slavery come alive in a way nothing else I've read or watched has.
The Wolf Hall trilogy. I'm always reading and rereading. Hypnotic.

Carter Beats the Devil by Glen David Gold. Just a fantastic adventure.

So pleased to see A Little Life being raved about. Devastating read.
Another vote for All the Light We Cannot See. Beautiful.
Christian F - the Diary of a Heroin Addict - read this as a teenager and it amazed me.
The Caliph's House - true story about moving into a house in Morocco and the relationship between the owner and the long standing servants (for want of a better word). Hilarious.

Eleanor Oliphant is completely fine. I couldn’t get it out of my mind.

'tis Frank mccourt. Shocking poverty which I realised was an insight in to my own, long deceased, mother's Irish childhood and the harsh societal judgments and awful family alcoholism.

Ooh yes, Beloved! I also studied it for A Level English and it was one of those books that pierced my heart and just haunted me. Powerful, powerful novel.

I found A Little Life gripping but gratuitous in parts. I guess it did stay with me, though, now I think if it. The main character was such a sad little thing.

@Luckyrabbitfoot

Lots that have been mentioned here.

To add though, one of my favourite books - The Woman Who Walked Into Doors by Roddy Doyle. Nobody I know has ever read it but it is incredible. I’m also shocked that a man could write a female character so well. It’s fantastic.

I was going to recommend this one. Brilliant book.

Blood Meridian - Cormac McCarthy. Most of his books are really memorable.
The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster, absolutely amazing.

@LindaCartersBun

Ooh yes, Beloved! I also studied it for A Level English and it was one of those books that pierced my heart and just haunted me. Powerful, powerful novel.

I found A Little Life gripping but gratuitous in parts. I guess it did stay with me, though, now I think if it. The main character was such a sad little thing.

The main character ended up irritating me. I'm going to hell for that I know.

The Bell Jar - sylvia plath. There's something about that book that just resonates.

The bone clocks - David Mitchell

All quiet on the western front - Erich Maria Remarque

A day in the life of Ivan Denisovich - Solzhenitsyn

Keep the Aspidistra Flying - george Orwell

That's a start, those are ones I find myself rereading again and again

The colour purple by Alice walker

Oh and Sophie's choice (William faulkner) although it fills me with horror (the choice)

And Of human bondage by Somerset Maugham, also The Painted Veil by same author

And Life after Life by Kate Atkinson

This thread is great

I agree with Khaled Hosseini books, all very thought provoking.

I'll never forget We Need To Talk About Kevin. It chilled me and I don't think I'll ever come to terms with it. The film adaptation was a bit disappointing in comparison but I don't think it could ever have done the detail of the book justice.

More recently The Midnight Library stayed with me for a while. I think, because of the current situation, regrets I've had are probably feeling a bit more amplified.

As a kid the Anne of Green Gables series.
As a teen Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy (I felt I was Eustacia Vye)

And French man's Creek by Daphne du Maurier