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Most heartbreaking lines from a book ever...

409 replies

iamdivergent · 17/10/2017 10:36

Mine has to be this one...

Then she was pressing her little proud broken self against his face, as close as she could get, and then they died.

I cried so hard the three times I've read the book (I haven't put the name of the book in case of spoilers) - what lines got to you?

OP posts:
Rufustherenegadereindeer1 · 20/10/2017 14:28

Oh god

It that insomnia?

Rufustherenegadereindeer1 · 20/10/2017 14:29

I havent read that one for years i gave it away as i didnt really enjoy it...but i am thinking i need to revisit

CountDuckulaTheSqueaky · 20/10/2017 14:30

That's it!

Rufustherenegadereindeer1 · 20/10/2017 14:34

Yay go me...

CountDuckulaTheSqueaky · 20/10/2017 14:37

Yes, well done, and now I'm trying not to start crying again! 😭😭😭😭Halloween Blush

Rufustherenegadereindeer1 · 20/10/2017 14:37
Grin

He does do a good death does Stephen

CountDuckulaTheSqueaky · 20/10/2017 14:53

Well yes, you have to give him his due! Grin

ItsNiceItsDifferentItsUnusual · 20/10/2017 19:35

Oh oscha I have been thinking of that book during this whole thread! I read that bit with such a lump in my throat, and it’s really stayed with me.

Flightywoman · 20/10/2017 20:09

HDM absolutely, I read that when I need a good cry.

Ditto The Velveteen Rabbit, and The Railway Children is guaranteed to reduce me to a sobbing mess.

But then there's the bit at the end of Seven Little Australians which is both melodramatic and heartbreaking. I can't hear Abide With Me without thinking of it.

Aside from all of these though, Family Life by Elizabeth Luard is about her life and family and the end of that is devastating. It's so beautifully written but crushing...it gets me every time.

wherethewildthingis · 20/10/2017 20:55

A happy one - again it's about love - I can't read this to my son without a little sob.

"I wanted you more than you ever will know
so I sent love to follow wherever you go.
It’s high as you wish it. It’s quick as an elf.
You’ll never outgrow it…it stretches itself!

So climb any mountain…climb up to the sky!
My love will find you. My love can fly!

Make a big splash! Go out on a limb!
My love will find you. My love can swim!

It never gets lost, never fades, never ends…

if you’re working…

or playing…

or sitting with friends.

You can dance ’til you’re dizzy, paint ’til you’re blue…
There’s no place, not one, that my love can’t find you.

And if someday you’re lonely, or someday you’re sad,
or you strike out at baseball, or think you’ve been bad…

just lift up your face, feel the wind in your hair.
That’s me, my sweet baby, my love is right there.

In the green of the grass…in the smell of the sea…
in the clouds floating by…at the top of a tree…
in the sound crickets make at the end of the day…

“You are loved. You are loved. You are loved,” they all say.

My love is so high, and so wide and so deep,
it’s always right there, even when you’re asleep.

So hold your head high and don’t be afraid
to march to the front of your own parade.

If you’re still my small babe or you’re all the way grown,
my promise to you is you’re never alone.

You are my angel, my darling, my star…
and my love will find you, wherever you are.

You are loved."

TheHodgeoftheHedge · 20/10/2017 22:04

For anyone who has ever been through a painful divorce, I cannot recommend reading Heartburn by Nora Ephron.
This had me in tears as it rang so true:

Vera said: “Why do you feel you have to turn everything into a story?”
So I told her why.
Because if I tell the story, I control the version.
Because if I tell the story, I can make you laugh, and I would rather have you laugh at me than feel sorry for me.
Because if I tell the story, it doesn't hurt as much.
Because if I tell the story, I can get on with it.

Bettercallsaul1 · 20/10/2017 22:09

Good inter-connection between life and literature there, Hodge. Grin

TheHodgeoftheHedge · 20/10/2017 22:11

I try ;) Bettercallsaul1 ;)

TheHodgeoftheHedge · 20/10/2017 22:11

PS epic typo there - I cannot recommend it enough!!!!!

Bettercallsaul1 · 20/10/2017 22:18

I have a very old copy of Heartburn in a bookshelf somewhere - I bought it when it first came out. reveals advanced age I loved it and read it twice very quickly! Now I want to read it again. I remember being intrigued by a recipe for Key Lime Pie! Grin

TheHodgeoftheHedge · 20/10/2017 22:26

It's a book I keep going back to and take something new (including recipes) every time!
Above all, be the heroine of your life, not the victim.

Oscha · 20/10/2017 23:08

Itsnice - it’s one of the most heartbreaking things I’ve ever read 😣

SeaEagleFeather · 21/10/2017 00:14

Riddley Walker .. now there is a forgotten book. A pared down version of The Road, iirc. Russell Hoban is another one can engage the heart

ScaryMary81 · 21/10/2017 01:32

wherethewildthingis & TheHodgeoftheHedge

💟💓💟

ToadTheVampireThreadKiller · 21/10/2017 02:04

This has never left me, since I read it as a child:

A short time after this a cart with a dead horse in it passed our cab-stand. The head hung out of the cart-tail, the lifeless tongue was slowly dropping with blood; and the sunken eyes! but I can't speak of them, the sight was too dreadful. It was a chestnut horse with a long, thin neck. I saw a white streak down the forehead. I believe it was Ginger; I hoped it was, for then her troubles would be over. Oh! if men were more merciful they would shoot us before we came to such misery.

Black Beauty, Chapter 40, Poor Ginger

DaenerysismyQueen · 21/10/2017 02:05

''After all this time?”
“Always,” said Snape.

LoveDeathPrizes · 21/10/2017 02:24

The end of Pippi Longsticking in the South Seas. So beautiful.

shopaholic85 · 21/10/2017 07:09

The end of 'We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves':

'Then she rested her forehead on the glass. I did the same and we stood that way for a very long time, face-to-face. From that vantage point, I could see her only in teary, floating pieces -
her eyes
the flaring of her nostrils
the sparse hairs on her chin and rimming her ears
the tiny rise and fall of her rounded shoulders
the way her breath painted and unpainted the glass'

BulletFox · 21/10/2017 07:14

The end of the book Sin by Josephine Hart:

As I leave you now
As I leave you
As I leave

Just found that so haunting

Graceflorrick · 21/10/2017 07:20

It would degrade me to marry Heathcliff now; so he shall never know how I love him: and that, not because he's handsome, Nelly, but because he's more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same.