The saddest book you've ever read . . .

[expatinscotland]

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

'White Oleander' by Janet Fitch

thanks jodee

The only books that have made me cry recently have been My Sister's Keeper, Hannah's Gift and Unravelled (the follow-up to Hannah's Gift).

I have Birdsong on my shelf to read and after reading the comments here will wait until I'm feeling strong before reading.

Yet another vote for The Lovely Bones!

Also Cecilia Aherne - P.S. I love you - so sad! and Where Rainbows End!

Read Don't wake me at Doyle's too - quite depressing in a real life kind of way, but very interesting!

SleepyJess - just seen this. Too right I'd kill you! Anyway, I haven't actually written the book yet, so feel the publicity they are giving it is a bit premature. However, have just got proofs of the book before that one (which is seemingly not being publicised at all yet... and a jolly good thing too).

Anyway, just to reiterate that everyone should read If This Is A Man. I've probably read it about 30 times, but there are bits that get to me every time... like the bit where the Italians are waiting to be transferred to Auschwitz and he describes how different groups of people spend their last nights in Italy, and finally he comes to the mothers, who stay up all night washing their children's clothes and preparing for the journey and he concludes by addressing the reader directly and asking: 'Wouldn't you do the same thing? If they were going to kill you and your children tomorrow, wouldn't you still make sure that they had something to eat today?' [gulp]. And there's another bit where he just says something along the lines of 'Emilia Levi is three years old' ... and that always has me in tears. I have to find oblique ways of referring to these passages in class, because otherwise I'd embarrass myself by crying.

"Anil's Ghost" by Michael Ondaatje

Charlotte's Web about the bloody spider. I wept!

oh no, MarsLady - so did I! Won't be able to sleep now!

Tuesdays with Morrie- Mitch Albom
Five people you meet in heaven- Mitch Albom
Light on snow- Anna Shreve
One about a boy who was eventually taken into care- was based on a true story not too sure what it was called and too lazy to go downstairs to get title...

pol25 was it called " a boy called it?"

The Little Prisoner - Jane Elliott, so shocking and sad :-(

Was so sure I had posted on this thread before I had to reread it again, in fact I am so bunged up with a nasty cold at the mo forgive me if I have and missed it.

Oh shut up numptie!

Anyway, the saddest book I ever read was Through A Glass Darkly by Jostein Gaarder. About a young girl lying in bed seriously ill during the run up to Christmas and the angel that visits her. So sad, I have tried in my brief description not to spoil it for anyone who hasn't read it!

Oscar and Lucinda. (sniff)

Before I say Goodbye - Ruth Picardie - Another vote for this - have read it several times....and will probably keep going back to it...

It was a boy called it, that was so so sad but a happy ending.

Intimacy by Hanif Kureshi read it a few years ago

The pursuit of happiness Douglas kennedy

I can't think of the title now, but it xas about a woman who used to work for the abortion clinics in China, forcing women to abort their second babies right up to the birth date. She had her own second child and fled to America where she told her tale. It was an horrendous book. I read it because I was working for a charity at the time that dealt with this very issue and I needed to know more about it, but certain things written there still haunt me to this day, I don't think, no matter how hard I try, that I will ever forget the things I read there .

The Good Women of China by Xinran.... truly excellent book but so very very powerful, great if you like reading about women in different cultures etc

I read Uncle Tom's Cabin when I was in my early twenties and just sobbed at parts of it. Have never cried like that since about a novel.

Mine are two childrens books. Goodnight Mr.Tom. by Michelle Magorian, and Walk Two Moons, by Sharon Creech.

Before I Say Goodbye, by Ruth Picardie Ds1 was about a year old when I read it and it just broke my heart.

Have just scrolled down - had a feeling other people might have mentioned it too.

kama - Once in House on Fire. I was at school with her younger sister. Another friend rang me when it came out and said "you won't believe this - you have to read this book. It's by L's big sister [she changed her sister's name in the book]" I was completely horrified - her sister was the year below me at school and I had no idea of what a nightmare her home life was. In fact, I really didn't like her - and I wanted to write to her after I read the book and say how sorry I was that she'd been going through all that. It really shocked me.

God, could not read the book 'before I say goodbye' that Marthasparklypinkwigamoo has recommended... just read the books description on amazon and it's brought me to tears... my mum died of cancer in 2002 and I was 21... not sure how anyone would feel leaving 2 year olds behind.

Ive just read the little prisoner which was really sad (by Jane Elliot) and it made me cry

I just didn't like 'The Lovely Bones' at all. Found it rather silly.
I did enjoy Birdsong though.

Wild Swans made me cry, especially the part when Jung Chang's father, an idealist, realises his whole life has been devoted to a flawed cause and he finally sees the Cultural Revolution for the disaster it really was. Such a waste of an intelligent, sensitive life.