please recommend some books without the traditional happy ending.

[sweetheart]

My sister loves reading but is always complaining that books always have too much of a happy ending. I thought for her Christmas present I'd try and seek out some good books which don't have the traditional or anticipated ending for her to read. She normally reads fairly easy going books - no war and peace type stuff please.
Thanks

Astonishing Splashes of Colour - Claire Morrall might be more on the light/interesting with an odd ending, rather than deep and heavy.

Any of Anne Tyler's might also be of interest - Accidental Tourist, Breathing Lessons

The time travellers wife. I cried buckets.

A Thousand Spelindid Suns or The Kite Runner both by Khaled Hosseini, both very good books

The girls by Lori Larsen ,
My best friends girl, or the ice cream girls by Dorothy Koonsom .
The Help by Katherine Stockett ( films quite good too )

Thanks for the recommendations - something like one day is the right sort of idea, I've just read it and will be giving it to her to read next.

I'll have a look at all of your suggestions thanks - I think it needs to be something modern really and not exactly tragic (I probably used the wrong word there) but just more of a twist to the ending.

I think things like Attonment and my sisters keeper she will have already seen the films.

Her fearful symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger - not too deep but very sad ending.

Jane Fallon writes good chicklit where the heroine never ends up with a dashing man (but does interesting things for herself) - that sort of thing?

Third "We Need to Talk About Kevin" ... such a tragic and unexpected ending (as if the whole story wasn't tragic enough). Fantastic read, quite fancy seeing the film now actually ...

Chelsea Cain with her Gretchen Lowell series - Sweetheart, Heartsick, Evil at Heart - beautiful female serial killer totally messes up the nice detective. It's not necessarily that they don't have cliche endings - the end usually ends up with the bad guy (woman) behind bars but the detective and his relationship with Gretchen leave him truly fucked up and broken.

YY to Anne Tyler!

The Remains of the Day
The Spy Who Came In From The Cold
Room

Perfume - Patrick Suskind
The Terrible Privacy of Maxwell Sim has a rather odd ending. It's a bit of an odd book (I loved it.) Jonathan Coe. What A Carve Up! has a sad ending.
The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters has an unsettling and unhappy ending.

Ooh - I tried those Chelsea Cain ones but just found the detective's obsession with Gretchen completely implausible - I think I actually finally flung the third book down in disgust at how unbelievably pathetic he was

Anne Tyler - Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant

Carson Mc Cullers - The Ballad of the Sad Cafe/ The Heart is a lonely Hunter

Wally Lamb - she's come undone/ this much i know is true

i was going to say Atonement

also French Lieutenant's Woman, by John Fowles, and The Collector, by the same writer

Poisonwood Bible, by Barbara Kingsolver

When God was a Rabbit by Sarah Winman. I've not long finished it and it was amazing. Lots of things suddenly crept up on you, thought provoking, funny, and a surprising ending.

And I only got it because I liked the pretty picture on the cover. Please tell me i'm not the only one who does this

McPhee - please go over to the WGWAR thread and answer my question!

Hannibal - Thomas Harris

The ending is nothing like the film and is a superb terrifying twist on happily ever afters

One day and When god was a Rabbit, I was crying at the end of both of those.

We need to talk about Kevin is a good read but heavy going.

A particular sadness of Lemon Cake, just finished it and haven't got a clue what it was about, no plot or explanation. Really wish I hadn't have bothered

WGWAR? I'm lost

Sorry, pregnancy brain..got you now!

On the Beach.
I sob pathetically from about half way through, and wallow my way into a positive creschendo of misery by the time I get to the end, every time I read it. I love it, but I do have to be "in the mood" for a good weep.

The Moment by Douglas Kennedy fits the bill

Billy by Albert French. I read it about 15 years ago and it still haunts me. Very sad ending.

I would recommend the novel Thumbelina about a pregnant teenage girl in the foster care system of the USA.