The saddest book you've ever read . . .

[expatinscotland]

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

'White Oleander' by Janet Fitch

Hi, just spotted this thread - can you tell me the author of this book please? My dad has multi infarct dementia and has been hospitalised for the last 5 years, v close to death but too well looked after to die! He is doubly incontinent and no idea who anyone is. So far he has survived septaceamia, pneumonia, prostate cancer to name just a few. It's very unusual to see something specific to MID and not just alzheimers.

Thanks

Stasiland. A true telling of the experience of a few people in Eastern Germany under the Stasi. I found it incredibly affecting

The God of Small Things (Arundhati Roy) and another vote for Angela's Ashes

I cried and cried at the end of Inconceivable by Ben Elton. It is a funny but also poignant easy read

You can have my copy if you want it LittleMissRACHEYXmasBigTits?

Big Tits (!!) I bought this as my fil is similarly affected. Gave it to my mil to read too-she found it very helpful indeed.

Sorry about the name, more appropriate in some contexts than others! Pranser and danser - I'd love it and mum would too - how much do you want for it - I'll try and CAT you.

The story of jamie bulger very
also story of Fred and rose West- what they did was evil and

You can just have it Rachey - just CAT me your address and I'll send it

Polo - by Jilly Cooper (bear with me!) The bit where Ricky's little boy dies because he's driving too fast and when drunk

Of Mice and Men
Bridges of Madison County

My sister's keeper by Jodie Piccoult

Dave Pelzer's personal story about his own childhood enduring horrid abuse from his own mother (2nd worst case in Californian history). This was an Oprah Book Club book.

The Color Purple by Alice Walker

chinese cinderella by adeline yen mah, cried so much :(
even sadder because it's true

Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe - my mum told me not to read the ending in public as it was the book I was reading on my daily commute. How right she was!

Also, Private Peaceful by Michael Morpurgo. It's one of the books I read regularly with my year 5s and every time I tell them to read the ending at home rather than in the group session at school, mostly because it makes me cry every time and I know the ending already!

There are lots of books with sad bits in - at which I am more than likely to cry - but the "saddest book" as a whole, rather than just bits in it? Possibly

On the Beach - Nevil Shute
The Mouse & His Child - Russell Hoban
Through A Glass Darkly - Jostein Gaarder

"The Road" by Cormac McCarthy

It's desolate.

a thousand splendid suns
Schindlers ark
the road

'Until Tonight' by Laure Adler - a memoir about the death of her young son. It is written in such a spare and elegant style, the large hospital is Kafkaesque, she never seems to get a diagnosis, it is unbearable and resonates so strongly for me. Definately the saddest story I have ever read.

The Road. Could not finish it as it was so depressing.

Another vote for The bridges of madison county.....the only book to make me shed tears.

I have seen goodnight mr tom, so i know the story do you think I should give the book a go.?

Agree with colditz about The Road - it left me feeling completely without hope! Also cried at A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth. I hated Angela's Ashes though - it just seemed completely ridiculous - every few pages another random sibling died - I just didn't believe a word of it.

Another vote for The Road. I don't think I wept at the end, it was more that I felt I would never be happy again.

On the Beach - I always cry at the end.

Diana by RF Delderfield - when she dies at the end it is horrible, and this poor man who has loved her all his life is left there alone.

A child called It - I cried myself to sleep almost every night while I was reading it. Crying with sadness and anger. My Mum had been working with an abused child the year before and some of the things in the book were similar to what she went through.

Also Lovely Bones and Captain Corelli's Mandolin

Alone In Berlin - Hans Fallada.
So bleak.