Suggest Me a Book is at it again! The subreddit for all your reading recommendation needs has curated a great list of books to read after a breakup, and I've got 15 of the redditors' best suggestions for you to take a look at below.
It all started on Monday, when redditor rflyon, who is going through a rough patch after being dumped by their girlfriend of four years, asked their fellow readers to "Recommend me beautiful books that will make me cry." Citing Haruki Murakami's Norwegian Wood and Cormac McCarthy's The Road, rflyon wrote, "Give me some surreal, coming-of-age, beautifully written, doomed relationships. Give me damaged people, hurt feelings, and shattered expectations of the future. Lend this stoic, heartbroken man your favourite tearjerkers." Reddit delivered, with more than 160 comments at the time of this writing.
If you're looking for something sad and beautiful to read, look no further. The 15 books on the list below are perfect to read after a breakup, or any other time you need an excuse to have a good cry. If you don't find something you like here, you can check out all of the comments in the original Reddit thread. And, as always, don't forget to share your favorite post-breakup books with me on Twitter!
'The Unbearable Lightness of Being' by Milan Kundera
Set in Prague during the late 1960s, The Unbearable Lightness of Being centers on Tomas, an anti-Communist and philandering surgeon, whose wife struggles to accept his infidelity, and who is forced to flee political upheaval for Switzerland.
'The Time Traveler's Wife' by Audrey Niffenegger
Twenty-eight-year-old Henry first meets Clare, the woman who will become his wife, when she is 20, but she has known him for most of her life. You see, Henry suffers from a genetic disorder that makes him incapable of experiencing time linearly, and instead bounces forward and backward along his timeline, aging as he goes.
'Never Let Me Go' by Kazuo Ishiguro
Years after they grew close at Hailsham boarding school, Kathy and Ruth reconnect as adults. As a result, Kathy is thrown back into her memories of their school days together, when both she and Ruth developed feelings for a boy named Tommy, and all three children discovered the secret behind their school's existence.
'A Little Life' by Hanya Yanagihara
College chums Willem, J.B., Malcolm, and Jude move from Massachussetts to New York City to pursue various careers, and they sustain their connections with one another into mid-life. But for Jude, the journey to adulthood has been fraught with disaster, and he is on the verge of breaking down.
'High Fidelity' by Nick Hornby
Rob makes lists, and to cope with the fact that his girlfriend has just left him, he makes a list of his five worst breakups — and then seeks out the women involved, in search of answers.
'If I Stay' and 'Where She Went' by Gayle Forman
After an accident leaves her on the brink of death, 17-year-old Mia must choose between staying — living — or passing on into the next life. Complicating matters are the immediate facts of Mia's life: her relationship with her boyfriend, her family's deaths in the crash, and her acceptance into a far-away college's music program.
'My Sister's Keeper' by Jodi Picoult
Ever since Kate got sick, Anna has been the one to keep her alive, through donations of her bone marrow and platelets. Now, Kate needs a kidney, and the girls' parents expect Anna to donate one of hers. Instead, Anna contacts a lawyer to help her gain autonomy over her body, for good.
'The Shadow of the Wind' by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
A decade after his love affair with an obscure book — the metanovel that gives The Shadow of the Wind its name — begins, Daniel finds himself drawn into the life and intrigue of the long-dead author, whose creation may have come to life.
'The Stone Gods' by Jeanette Winterson
Billie comes from a world in which everyone is overly concerned with their appearances, even in the face of environmental ruin. So she takes her lover, a humanoid robot, and sets out for the vast reaches of space, where she becomes a time traveler and witness to humanity's foibles.
'The Kite Runner' and 'A Thousand Splendid Suns' by Khaled Hosseini
Khaled Hosseini's debut novel, The Kite Runner, focuses on Amir and Hassan, two boys from very different social classes who bond over their love of kite-fighting, only to be separated when a terrible tragedy strikes. The follow-up, A Thousand Splendid Suns, centers on two women — decades apart in age, but married to the same man — who must bond together in the wake of Taliban occupation.
'Lamb' by Bonnie Nadzam
After meeting when her friends dare her to ask him for a cigarette, 11-year-old Tommie and 50-year-old David hatch a plan to fake her kidnapping and scare her pals. When the friends show little interest in Tommie's wellbeing, she and David take off on a roadtrip out west.
'Waiting' by Ha Jin
Physician Lin Kong is already an unhappily married man when he meets Manna, a young nurse in the hospital where he works. China is on the brink of its Cultural Revolution, however, and any divorce will be met with suspicion. So Lin takes the only other option he has, separating from his wife for 18 years to dissolve their marriage.
'The Lowland' by Jhumpa Lahiri
Focusing on two brothers from Calcutta, Jhumpa Lahiri's The Lowland is a family saga that traces the lives of Subhash and Udayan for more than 40 years, as one leaves to study in the U.S., and the other becomes part of a militant movement.
