Most heartbreaking lines from a book ever...

[iamdivergent]

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?

Oh heavens, I wish I hadn't opened this thread, there isn't enough Kleenex in the world.

When I first read Little Woman I thought Beth's death was mawkish and saccharinely sentimental. I can't read it now without crying. Because, yes, it's mawkish and sentimental. But at its very core it's truthful.

I'm glad it was mentioned. Today is my late sister's birthday. And Beth's death was her death.

darumafan, that is heart breaking

Why am I reading this thread on my lunch break? A tear just dropped off my chin into my salad

“A mother's body remembers her babiesthe folds of soft flesh, the softly furred scalp against her nose. Each child has its own entreaties to body and soul. It's the last one, though, that overtakes you. I can't dare say I loved the others less, but my first three were all babies at once, and motherhood dismayed me entirely. . . . That's how it is with the firstborn, no matter what kind of mother you arerich, poor, frazzled half to death or sweetly content. A first child is your own best food forward, and how you do cheer those little feet as they strike out. You examine every turn of flesh for precocity, and crow it to the world.

But the last one: the baby who trails her scent like a flag of surrender through your life when there will be no more coming after--oh, that's love by a different name. She is the babe you hold in your arms for an hour after she's gone to sleep. If you put her down in the crib, she might wake up changed and fly away. So instead you rock by the window, drinking the light from her skin, breathing her exhaled dreams. Your heart bays to the double crescent moons of closed lashes on her cheeks. She's the one you can't put down.”

Goodness that’s beautiful. I haven’t read he book but that made my cry, even more poignant because my DD 11 months will be my last baby. It’s definitely reminded me to treasure the moments a little bit more

The ending of the Michael Morpurgo children's book 'The Dancing Bear' It upset me so much as a child I tore up the book, which really wasn't a 'me' thing to do at all! I haven't been able to bring myself to read it since.

The poor little Swallow grew colder and colder, but he would not leave the Prince, he loved him too well. He picked up crumbs outside the baker's door when the baker was not looking, and tried to keep himself warm by flapping his wings.
But at last he knew that he was going to die. He had just strength to fly up to the Prince's shoulder once more.'Good-bye, dear Prince!' he murmured, 'will you let me kiss your hand?'
'I am glad that you are going to Egypt at last, little Swallow,' said the Prince, 'you have stayed too long here; but you must kiss me on the lips, for I love you.'
'It is not to Egypt that I am going,' said the Swallow. I am going to the House of Death. Death is the brother of Sleep, is he not?'
And he kissed the Happy Prince on the lips, and fell down dead at his feet.
At that moment a curious crack sounded inside the statue, as if something had broken. The fact is that the leaden heart had snapped right in two. It certainly was a dreadfully hard frost.

This quote from John Green always upsets me.

From "The Five People you meet in Heaven";

"He was nothing now, a leaf in the water, and she pulled him gently, through shadow and light, through shades of blue and ivory and lemon and black, and he realized all these colors, all along, were the emotions of his life."

Actually, it's the passages leading up to this that start me off, but I don't want to spoil the story for those that haven't read it yet.

Very slowly he turned his head back to look at Shmuel, who wasn't crying anymore, merely staring at the floor and looking as if he was trying to convince his soul not to live inside his tiny body anymore, but to slip away and sail to the door and rise up into the sky, gliding through the clouds until it was very far away.

The boy in the striped pyjamas

I had a cry yesterday reading The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness.

Spoiler alert - involves a dog "there's a CRACK and a scream and a cut-off yelp that tears my heart in two forever and forever. And the pain is too much it's too much it's too much and my hands are on my head and I'm rearing back and my mouth is open in a never-ending wordless wail of all the blackness that's inside me."

I literally threw the book down and cried at this bit.

Goodness that’s beautiful. I haven’t read he book but that made my cry

Read it, you're in for such a treat! I've lost count of the number of times I've read it and each time I discover something new in it. It's just beautiful.

Ladydepp! Yes I cried at that too !!

Oh god, I started reading this thread and got as far as the quote from Mog on page 2 and burst into noisy, ugly crying just out of nowhere much to the bafflement of my husband and my cat whom was squashed to my chest.

I haven't got the book to hand, but the bit in Wolf Hall where he goes off to work and when he comes home his wife has died of the sweating sickness and his daughters are dying is heartbreaking.

When DD1 was very small I bought Owl babies.

"And she came!". Sob. Every. Time.

The very last line of A Thousand Splendid Suns. My most favourite book ever.

'But the game only involves male names. For if it is a girl, Laila has already named her'
Oh lord every time.

And I have just replaced my copy of the Poisonwood Bible, because mine had gone missing and I read it every couple of years. It is in my top 3 all time ever books. Truly marvellous.

"Theo never doubted for a moment that when he died he would be reunited with Laura and, in his mind, it was just like The Railway Children –he would walk out of a fog and Laura would be there and she would say, ‘Daddy, my daddy.’ It wasn’t that Theo believed in religion, or a God, or an afterlife, he just knew it was impossible to feel this much love and for it to end."

From 'Case Histories' by Kate Atkinson

I bought a Kindle copy so I have one for the bookshelf reserved for Very Special Books and one for the kindle.

Weirdly I haven't got on with anything else she's written.

Don't do The Lacuna! The Bean Trees and Pigs in Heaven are gorgeous.

Oh heck, lots of these are impossible to read aloud without sobbing. The one which got me worst was reading David Copperfield to DD, the scene which describes Jip dying, while 'offstage' Dora is too.

DD got quite cross at my inability to choke the words out.

fufulina thanks

In 'The Snow Goose' by Paul Gallico, when Fritha sees the goose and cries "God speed you, Philip!"

sobs

That whole novella makes me wail.

"And by the way, Monsieur Marius, I believe that I was a little bit in love with you."

She tried to smile once more and expired.

It's even sadder in the original French.-