The saddest book you've ever read . . .

[expatinscotland]

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

'White Oleander' by Janet Fitch

Sorry meant Angela's Ashes not 'tis.

Oh I got past it - I bravely read on through my tears, and snot

is Lovely bones a good book? I picked it up from a car boot and haven't read it yet.....

'Between Two Eternities' by Rosemary Kay
(thanks to SleepyJess for recommending it - or rather, talking about it so much that I just HAD to read it Glad I did, though.)

I want to read that one...... must buy it.....

good night mr tom................ god that book gets me every time read it if you havent it a classic

Watership Down.

For goodness sake, I've eaten rabbit, but those rabbits make me howl!

Another vote for Birdsong. I read the last bit on the tube on the way into work and I was sobbing away - couldn't help it..!

The Deep End of the Ocean - sob! Don't know who wrote it. Was also made into a film starring Michele Pfeifer.

Walk Two Moons, by Sharon Creech. It's an excellent childrens book. I also loved Goodnight Mr Tom.

'The Bluest Eye' by Toni Morrison
another vote for The Grapes of Wrath
and Birdsong

Another vote for Ruth Picardie's "Before I Say Goodbye" (diary/correspondence/newspaper columns of a thirty-something journalist, mum of 1-yr-old twins, diagnosed with terminal breast cancer).

I haven't re-read it since having children myself, I had tears rolling down my cheeks before them so I dread to think what it would do to me now! But it is a book I will never part with, her writing style is just stunning.

after you'd gone by maggie o'farrell is the best i've read for ages. also angela's ashes. thought lovely bones was rather gruesome & as i don't believe in heaven, too far fetched.

I would have to say Rohinton Mistry's A Fine Balance. It is a portrait of India in the 50s; brilliant but disturbing and SO sad!

Read Charlotte Gray when I was pregnant and cried for days. Also have a small boy so the whole plot about the two brothers really got to me.
Couldn't work out why the wedding at the end mirrored the boys' ending - anyone else read it & want to share an opinion?

"Dogger" gets me every time!

Magscat, I HATED the ending of Charlotte Gray. I thought the murder of the two boys was counterpointed with the wedding in a really horrible, cynical way - kind of, and here are four people at a crossroads in their lives! Two of them step over the threshold into happy married life, and the other two - oh whooops - they've stepped over the threshold into a gas chamber! I thought he used the Holocaust as a really cynical plot device to get some tearjerking going.

Ooh, it makes me angry to think of it even now

There is a line at the end of Robert Heinlein's 'The cat who walks through walls' which gets to me.

"Dying is easy. Even a baby kitten can do it"

The one I'm reading at the moment - The Luxury of Time by Jane Tomlinson. The utter sadness and despair at knowing that you are dying, that you won't see your kids grow up, and that you're leaving them without a mummy

Hester - I thought the way he brought up the gas chamber image at the wedding was supposed to indicate that Charlotte was making a mistake - i.e. she wasn't getting a happy ending - maybe she should have run off with the French guy (Octave ? - can't remember now)instead of the pilot. Whatever it was meant to mean it made be miserable thinking about the 2 brothers again and I hated that he'd done it too.

Another vote for 'lovely bones' - yes it is a fantastic book. Just read 'lucky' as well (Alice Sebold's own story of her rape) and found that really compelling and a bit of an eye-opener about rape cases.

The Lovely Bones made me despair of life. I didn't even get past the first few chapters. Life is bad enough with council tax, who needs that? Thank God I didn't pay for it or I'd have been really depressed.

I cry at loads of books. The Poisonwood bible springs to mind and I found Margaret Attwood's The Handmaid's Tale completely heartbreaking.

Ian McEwan's A Child In Time. Read it about 15 years ago, won't go near it again. Just so upsetting.
Peepo makes me cry too, but for different reasons.