There’s nothing quite so cathartic as a good cry, and no joy quite like that of getting lost in a great book. Combine both for the bittersweet joy that is a paperback heartbreaker. Here are ten of our favourites that should be sold with Kleenex as standard.
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One Day
This 2009 tome followed the lives of best friends Emma and Dexter, checking in on them every July 15
th for twenty years. A love story that is by turns hilarious, frustrating and absolutely heartbreaking, this novel is a reminder that not everyone gets a happy ending.
Me Before You
Jojo Moyes has been responsible for breaking new hearts across the world since this book hit shelves in 2012. Lou Clark lives a sheltered and simple life, and is happy to keep it that way. Will Traynor led a very different kind of existence until fate stepped in and changed everything, but he’s determined to wrestle control back. This is the book that proves love doesn’t have to last a lifetime to change your life forever.
Tuesdays with Morrie
One book that will make you want to look up your favourite old teacher, reconnect and listen carefully to everything they have to say. This 1997 memoir struck a chord across the globe with “an old man, a young man, and life’s greatest lesson”.
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas
Irish novelist John Boyne said of his 2006 bestseller that the first draft was written in less than three days. Which is depressing really, since most of us could spend a lifetime working at it and never come up with anything half as touching, beautiful and utterly gut-wrenching. The friendship between Bruno and Shmuel calls to mind the innocence of childhood that remains even in some of the darkest periods of human history. As for the image of the pair holding hands? Forget the tissues, you’ll need a towel.
Goodnight Mr. Tom
One of the classics. This 1981 release from English author Michelle Magorian tells the story of Willie Beech, sent from his abusive mother’s London home to the rural home of widower Thomas Oakley. While Willie initially considers “Mister Tom” a bad-tempered recluse, time proves that love comes in all shapes and sizes, and appearances can be very deceptive.
The Fault In Our Stars
Technically written for teens, but what does that matter when it’s one of the most touching love stories you’re ever likely to lay your hands on. Sixteen-year-old cancer patient Hazel considers herself a ‘grenade’, afraid of letting anyone get close to her for fear that they may be hurt by her inevitable decline. But meeting seventeen-year-old fellow ‘cancer kid’ Augustus changes everything, forever.
The Book Thief
Not your typical tearjerker, but you may have a notion that there is heartbreak in store when a novel is narrated by none other than Death. This 2005 release is set in Nazi Germany, and tells the story of Liesel Meminger, a nine-year-old girl who is taken from her mother and sent to live with new foster parents Hans and Rosa Hubermann. Liesel makes dear friends with her young neighbor Rudy, and Max Vandenburg, a Jewish man her new ‘Papa’ is helping to hide, but her young eyes see more sadness than a child ever should.
My Sister’s Keeper
There is no drama so great as that which goes on within the average family home. That said, the Fitzgerald home is anything but average. This 2004 novel from Queen of Heartbreak Jodi Picoult tells the story of thirteen-year-old Anna, born as a ‘saviour sister’ to her older sibling Kate. When she decides she can’t give any more, the scene is set for a court battle that threatens to destroy everyone involved.
The Kite Runner
Another book anchored by an unlikely friendship. Raised in the same household, fortune sees Amir and Hassan inhabiting different worlds. Though one is a son of the wealthy, and one a part of an ethnic minority shunned by the masses, the two share a beautiful friendship for their young years that comes under threat from the forces around them. A story of power, loyalty, betrayal and redemption.
Never Let Me Go
As categories go, dystopian science fiction isn’t the section of the bookshop you might automatically go to for a weepie, but we’d be willing to wager any money you’ll be in floods after this. Kazuo Ishiguro’s 2005 tale is spilt into three acts, each following a different stage in the lives of central characters Tommy, Ruth and Kathy. From the outset it’s clear that boarding school Hailsham is no ordinary place of education, but the future in store for the young men and women who go there is more chilling than anything your imagination might conjure up.