What is the most beautiful book you have ever read?

[umbrellabird]

I've had a tough year and just want to surround myself in good things...

Strangely, I was also going to suggest The Summer Book by Tove Jansson. I'm sure there must be others, though - it's a tough question. Maybe Katherine Mansfield's short stories?

The two I was going to say have been mentioned:

The God of Small Things
and
The Summer Book

Yes to Like Water For Chocolate too.

I will throw in A Month in the Country and I Heard The Owl Call My Name too.

H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald. It's non-fiction, but beautiful and inspiring.

Sara alexi's Greek village series are lovely to read, especially the first one. You could be in Greece smelling that lovely warm air.

I came on to say Possession and Like Water for Chocolate; also Captain Corelli's Mandolin and A Moment in Time (HE Bates)

Actually The Darling Buds of May series also by HE Bates is all good; and The Number One Ladies Detective Agency series by Alexander McCall Smith has beautiful descriptions of Botswana.

Oh and The English a Patient, but obviously it's very sad...

Remains of the Day - a sad book but the style of writing is wonderful.

Kazuo Ishiguro - The Remains of the Day

An absolute masterpiece in my opinion.

Ooohhh cross posted. It is sad, full of regret, but beautiful at the same time.

26a by Dianna Evans

Little King December by Axel Himdt (I think that's the author)

'On The Road' by Jack Kerouc

For Dh 'The Notable Brain of Maximillan Ponder' by J. Ironmonger, or 'The Road' by Cormac McCarthy (that is darkly beautiful, imo).

My Antonia by Willa Cather. I come back to it time and time again.

I love a book called 'a brief history of the dead' it's said in parts but so well written and thoughtful

There's a book I'm reading an ARC of at the moment, Changed Souls by Harriet Truscott - Goodreads link - it's coming out properly in a few weeks, I think.
The prose is just gorgeous, spare and not wordy at all but so elegant and multi-sensory in its descriptions. Highly recommended. (Creepy, though.)

Les Grandes Meaulnes by Alain Fournier. An English translation of a book by a French author who was killed in WW1, so he never got to write another. It is the most beautiful and saddest love story ever. I'm hoping it's never made into a film as I don't think it could ever be done justice.

I'd agree with Remains of the day, God of small things and Like water for chocolate.

I also really enjoyed memoirs of a Geishaand thought the descriptions of the traditions (the Geishas' make up and hair, tea ceremonies and music and dancing) were beautiful and really calming to read.

The Joy Luck Club - Amy Tan

The Museum of Innocence by Orhan Pamuk is beautifully written and full of pathos. Love it.

Voyage of the Dawntreader by CS Lewis; the ending imagery makes my heart beat faster.

The first book of Herman Hesse's Stories of Five Decades I remember being very beautiful.

The Water of the Hills by Marcel Pagnol.

Haven't read half of these acclaimed novels mentioned - need to redress that! I found The Five People... overly schmaltzy but it is a bit of a Marmite book.

Another vote for "The Five People You Meet in Heaven". Also, "Tuesdays With Morrie", also by Mitch Albom.

Another vote for I Heard The Owl Call My Name. I first read it nearly 40 years ago and was tremendously moved by how beautiful it was. Very sad though...

Another vote for Gilead by Marilynne Robinson - a spare, beautiful story that makes you want to be a better person after reading it.

In The Skin of The Lion by Michael Ondaatje.

So beautiful I read it in small small pieces so I could string it out as long as I could. I haven't read anything else since that I could feel the beauty of the prose in like this book.

The Red Tent by Anita Diamant. Beautiful story, beautiful ending.