Thread: Saddest Book You've Ever Read

The only book that I remember ever making me cry was The Land by Mildred D. Taylor... but what comes to mind immediately is Night by Elie Wiesel, not only sad but shocking and gruesome as well.

200th post!

The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton. I cry every single time I read it, and I have read it about 7 times.

Greyfriars Bobby by Eleanor Atkinson. I read it as a child and cried. I read it to my children and cried. I watched the original film and, you guessed it, cried. It’s a very moving true story about a dog’s loyalty.

Originally Posted by obi_have

The book that bummed me out the most was "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy
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Same here and another of his novels, Child Of God.

Others which has reduced me to tears (note that It doesn't actually take THAT much to make me cry) would include Les Miserables, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, Of Mice and Men and Wide Sargasso Sea.

I think the saddest book I've read was Shadowdale, a TSR book based on D&Ds Forgotten Realms, but that was a different kind of sad.

The one that perhaps moved me most was For Whom the Bell Tolls, by Hemmingway.

Short stories move me the most though. I love short stories. So much awesome in so little space.

Norwegian Wood. It's about a relatively young man who's in a "trio" of friends with his best friend and his best friend's girlfriend. His best friend is the "big guy" - everyone finds him fun, he's popular... But his best friend kills himself. His girlfriend then goes mad and sent to a home, and the story follows on from there.

I love short stories. So much awesome in so little space.

No book I've read have I ever deemed sad. Short stories however, effect me far more dramaticly.

"Beauty is in the simple"

The Lovely Bones was pretty sad.

Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke.

Watching a person's spirit die and wither is profoundly sad. Seeing mankind submit and give up..... disturbing beyond belief.

Somewhat oxymoronically, the saddest and happiest were one and the same, 1066 and All That. When I first read it, while on a train from Ipswich to Cambridge, in 1964, I laughed uproariously, so much so that girls further down the carriage started laughing too. When I tried to read it a couple of years ago I wondered what an earth I'd found so funny - a great disappointment.

John Irving's A prayer for Owen Meany. I cry every time I read it and I read it at least once or twice a year.

Bridge of Courage by Jennifer Harbury. If you can read that without crying then you have a coal black heart...

Originally Posted by Jen

Same here and another of his novels, Child Of God.

Others which has reduced me to tears (note that It doesn't actually take THAT much to make me cry) would include Les Miserables, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, Of Mice and Men and Wide Sargasso Sea.

I thought I was going to be the only one to say Of Mice and Men which was more moving than sad. Probably because my little brother's autistic so the slightly dumb guy reminded me of him.

I whimpered at the end of Green Mile by Stephen King when the black guy is sent to the chair.

The Visitation by Frank Peretti. A former minister who is being harassed by a false-prophet having flashbacks of his childhood and deceased wife, very touching story. Planet of The Apes had a pretty morbid ending, I'll certainly never forget it.

Inside the mind of the BTK by John Douglas. A very difficult read and a tragic true event.