The saddest book you've ever read . . .

[expatinscotland]

or didn't finish b/c it was just too depressing?

'White Oleander' by Janet Fitch

Lovely Bones by Alice Seobold

hannah gift....... so so sad.......

Oh and The Colour Purple

Lovely Bones and Lucky .

Reread Lovely Bones recently (read it the first time before I had DS) - thought it was sad the first time, cried BUCKETS the second time!

Definitely Helen Dunmore's books. The Siege made my cry, but Mourning Ruby made me howl every time I read it. Beautiful, and so therapeutic.

Bought Lovely bones when pregnant (which was a bit silly) but just could not get past the beginning, it was sooo painful. I'm not sure if I'll ever be able to read it.

before I say goodbye by Justine Picardie... I have read it so many times I could quote it.. how that woman could write such beautifully eloquent prose when must have been broken by the thought of leaving her 2 kids is beyond me...

The line about "I guess the future will get on without me, it's just that I'll miss it so" still kills me...

Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks.

I don't think I've ever read a truly sad book, I've read some that are upsetting, but not in a 'oh that's sad' way, and some that make me cry because I cry at anything involving babies, pregnant women or people getting married, but nothing sad.

another vote for the lovely bones and lucky.... addictive reading but so sad.

i think it was called 'red sky at night' about a girl whos brother was born disabled but she learnt to love him before he died. its a teenagers book and i read it years ago. a bitter sweet story

lovely bones by alice seabold, before i say goodbye by justine picardie and my sisters keeper by jodie picoult (apart from the end which i thought was a bit danielle steele!.

On the beach by Nevil Shute, very, very depressing.

docket if you liked Birdsong you'll like Charlotte Gray too. It made me cry and haunted me for days.

Paula by Isabella Illende - all the more poignant because it is based on the true story of her daughter's fatal illness.

Isabel Allende even

Lovely bones,
Angelas Ashes,
fat ladies club
Im alright daddy
Paddy Clarke hahaha

And talking of Roddy Doyle on the funniest books thread, how about The Woman Who Walked into Doors for this one?

ooh yes, i read that and cried allot.
Have any of you read the fat ladies club?

His Dark Materials - the last one in the trilogy particularly. I got them all for Xmas and finished the last one in bed on 30th December when dh and dd were away. I started crying about 3/4 of the way through, when you realise what's going to have to happen at the end.

Message withdrawn

birdsong, and The Red Tent. also, 'tis. The Grapes of Wrath too.

A tale of Two Cities gets me every time "It is a far far better thing I do......

And Watership Down - those bloody rabbits - weep buckets at that

Ooh, pruni and prufrock, I'm exactly the same, whizzed through the first two books and never got past the last third of Subtle Knife, too sad.