8 literary novels that will make you cry (in the good way)

There’s a particular kind of reading mood — not sad, exactly, but ready to be moved. Books that go straight for the heart and leave you better for it. If you want a novel that earns its tears, here are eight.

1. A Little Life — Hanya Yanagihara

The heavyweight champion of devastating novels. Beautiful, harrowing, and not for the faint of heart — go in prepared.

2. A Man Called Ove — Fredrik Backman

A curmudgeon, a community, and a gentler kind of heartbreak. The tears here come with a lot of warmth.

3. Never Let Me Go — Kazuo Ishiguro

Quiet, restrained, and quietly shattering. The grief sneaks up and then stays for days.

4. The Heart’s Invisible Furies — John Boyne

A sweeping Irish life story, funny and tragic by turns. You’ll laugh right up until you don’t.

5. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow — Gabrielle Zevin

Friendship, creativity, and loss, told across decades. Aches in the way only stories about long love (of all kinds) can.

6. Hamnet — Maggie O’Farrell

A mother’s grief in Shakespeare’s England. The final chapters are among the most moving in recent fiction.

7. The Book Thief — Markus Zusak

Narrated by Death, set in Nazi Germany, and somehow full of light. A modern classic that wrecks readers of every age.

8. Crying in H Mart — Michelle Zauner

A memoir of grief, food, and a mother-daughter bond. Proof that the most cathartic cry can come from a true story.

When you’re ready

A good cathartic read is best with tea and no plans. Find one on our shelves, or tell the Next Read Matchmakerthe last book that moved you and let it find the next. When you’ve recovered, trade it forward so it can wreck someone else.