Books that make you cry

[Scimitarsandstars]

I just finished Earth and Heaven by Sue Gee. I first tried to read it about 12 years ago but gave up as I was finding it too upsetting.

I picked it up again a few days ago as I love her writing and this book is so beautifully written. Once again, I was in floods of tears , although this time, I have finished it. I don't remember another book that has made me cry so much. I don't regret reading it though. It is so thoughtful and moving, and so evocative about the post WW1 period (although I am slightly doubtful about the ending).

So I am wondering, has anyone else read a book recently that's made you sob? And did it put you off reading it?

As someone who bursts into tears at the drop of a hat I don't really cry at books.

In fact the only one I can think of (apart from a university text book on tax law) was Olive Schreiner's From Man to Man.

The opening sequence about a little girl who finds her new baby sibling 'sleeping' and brings her flowers and gifts and tries to warm her little hands up as they are so cold. I was in floods.

And The Kite Runner by the same author.

@Zimunya that’s my favourite book!

Recently OP Rachel Clarke - Story Of A Heart, sobbing by page 10.

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas.

Quite a few children’s books. I often have tears streaming down my face when reading to a class of children!

A Little Life. Absolutely gutting all the way through.

The Time Traveller's Wife. Read it in bed and had to genuinely wipe my nose on the pillowcase. Tmi truths.

Of Mice And Men every time (Teacher. "Take off your hat, Lennie. The air sure feels fine...")

Song of Achilles.

Books I probably can't reread after having a baby: Pet Sematary. Cujo. Recently read the short story that's a sort of sequel to Cujo and even that was too distressing.

The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro made me cry at the end

I don't often cry while reading - I'm much more likely to make a fool of myself over a film. But the most recent book that got me welling up was How High We Go In The Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu. It's a book of short stories ostensibly about a devastating pandemic but really about grief in its many forms.

Then there was Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. It's an incredible book but I'm not sure I could bring myself to read it again.

Finally The Woman Who Walked Into Doors by Roddy Doyle was heart-breaking.

The Salt Path. Also Never Let me go (as the previous poster suggested) had me in bits! I actually binned it it provoked such a sense of horror and devastation!

Oh, and I can't read to the end of the first line of the kids' book "Wherever you go my love will find you".

4 miscarriages and one miracle:

"I wanted you more than you ever will know. So I sent love to follow wherever you go".

Me sobbing into little boy's hair, him befuddled.

Shuggie Bain made me weep

Anne of Green Gables and Rilla of Ingleside both have sections which have me in bits.

A Small Person Far Away by Judith Kerr. There is a chapter where siblings visit an exhibition about their late father which is hugely moving. I also cry over A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.

The end of A God in Ruins by Kate Atkinson made me sob! And again when I reread it.

Peeling Onions by Felicity Haughton Baker

All the Colours of the Dark

the women kirsten hannah

Every last one by Anna Quindlen, only book that has ever made me cry. The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah almost made me cry but I was definitely welling up

After the end Clare Mackintosh

next of kin Kia Abdulah (gut wrenching)

The miraculous journey of Edward tulane

the last bear

(both children’s books)

The Island of Sea Women- Lisa See. Stunning but also gut wrenching. Blubbed for days and still think about it years later.

Michael Rosen's Sad Book. Read that after a friend's 2nd suicide attempt. Just standing in the book shop, sobbing. I had to buy it and I've cried over again re-reading it.

And The Poisonwood Bible. Read it on a train. Can't remember where I was travelling now but I was crying so hard I couldn't see the words to kep reading.

Andrea Levy' s Small Island is beautiful and sad when the main character gives up her baby.
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak... poor Lisa as she goes through war and is found years later...

Good Wives
Black Beauty
Watership Down
Wolf Hall, in the same way Hamnet upset me
The Underground Railroad

Best book I’ve ever read