Beautiful Bummers: 12 Beautiful Books About the Saddest Stories

Lean Your Loneliness Slowly Against Mine by Klara Hveberg

The caller portrays the communicative of Rakel, a postgraduate pupil of mathematics who prefers to stay unnoticed. However, her enactment and aspirations pull the attraction of Jakob, a prof who takes a keen involvement successful her. Gradually, their narration turns romantic, and Jakob makes promises to Rakel, including leaving his woman for her. The publication beautifully captures Rakel’s affectional turmoil arsenic she struggles to reconcile her feelings for Jakob with his breached promises and gaslighting. Despite the hopelessness that consumes her, she persists successful her loyalty to Jakob.

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

In the aboriginal 1900s successful Korea, a young pistillate named Sunja finds herself successful a hard situation. Despite falling successful emotion with a affluent and influential man, she discovers that helium is already joined and decides to region herself from him. Instead, she accepts a matrimony connection from a passing curate connected his mode to Japan. However, her determination to cull her son’s begetter and permission her location volition person far-reaching consequences. Pachinko is simply a stunning communicative of love, sacrifice, and the complexities of life.

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The Thirty Names of Night by Zeyn Joukhadar

This coming-of-age communicative is utterly superb and masterfully crafted. The protagonist is simply a closeted Syrian American trans lad who is visited by his deceased mother’s ghost. After his parent died successful a mysterious fire, the lad cannot prosecute his passionateness for painting. However, helium finds solace successful coating murals connected the buildings of Little Syria, Manhattan. During his nightly adventures, helium uncovers a communicative astir an creator named Laila Z, starring him to observe secrets astir his household and community.

The Clay Girl by Heather Tucker

Ari Appleton’s communicative is 1 of heartbreak and resilience. After the tragic nonaccomplishment of her father, she seeks solace with her aunts, lone to beryllium forced backmost into the turmoil of her mother’s location with her 5 sisters. Over the adjacent 10 years, Ari endures 1 hardship aft another, losing astir everyone she loves. The 1 changeless successful her beingness is an imaginary seahorse named Jasper. No substance however aged Ari got, it warmed my bosom that Jasper ne'er near her and she ne'er stopped confiding successful him.

The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates

Ta-Nehisi Coates’ debut caller is simply a stunning portion of lit intricately crafted with moving prose. In it, we travel the travel of Hiram Walker, a Virginia enslaved idiosyncratic who manages to flight the plantation and find refuge wrong the office of a secretive underground absorption movement. While the communicative is grounded successful humanities reality, Coates masterfully weaves phantasy elements arsenic Hiram possesses unsocial abilities, including an astir photographic memory.

Dear Edward by Ann Napolitano

This communicative of 12-year-old Edward Adler volition permission you emotionally moved and possibly a small drained. Based connected existent events, this publication follows Edward’s beingness aft helium becomes the sole subsister of a cross-country formation from Newark to L.A. Through alternating timelines, we research the lives of the passengers earlier the clang and Edward’s experiences after. With the nonaccomplishment of his older member and parents, Edward is forced to unrecorded with his aunt and uncle, and the affectional toll this takes connected him is heartwrenching.

The Vanished Birds by Simon Jimenez

The publication follows Nia Imani, a clip traveler who struggles to signifier meaningful relationships owed to the fleeting quality of her job. With thing tying her down to immoderate peculiar constituent successful time, Nia lives for her adjacent paycheck. However, everything changes erstwhile she witnesses a young lad falling from the sky. The lad communicates lone done his enchanting flute music, captivating Nia’s heart. But unfortunately, Nia is not the lone 1 successful this abstraction and clip who desires him. Oh, my heart. This publication is beautiful.

All the Ugly and Wonderful Things by Bryn Greenwood

Compelling and thought-provoking, this publication focuses connected the unconventional narration betwixt Wavy, a young miss from a troubled family, and Kellen, an ex-convict. The publication spans implicit a decennary and a half, chronicling the improvement of their narration from a accidental brushwood to a heavy and analyzable bond. Despite the taboo quality of their relationship, it is portrayed with sensitivity and nuance, exploring themes of love, loyalty, and the resilience of the quality spirit.

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

As a young pupil successful the precocious ’90s, Kathy attended the secluded and exclusive Hailsham School successful England alongside her friends Ruth and Tommy. The schoolhouse enforced strict and antithetic rules, leaving the students to wonderment astir their aboriginal beyond Hailsham. It was a cosmopolitan knowing that their clip astatine the schoolhouse was simply a halt connected a journey, but they were ne'er told why. As Kathy reflects connected her clip astatine Hailsham successful her 30s, she becomes determined to uncover the information astir the schoolhouse and its mysterious leaders.

On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong

Vuong’s archetypal non-poetry work, this publication incorporates some vivid imagery and poignant connection to archer the communicative of Little Dog and his family, Vietnamese refugees surviving successful the United States. Written arsenic a missive to his illiterate parent who volition ne'er work it, the publication is simply a semi-autobiographical coming-of-age communicative that explores the complexities of adapting to a caller home, sexuality, and overall, conscionable the feeling of belonging successful a spot that feels similar it wants to cull you.

The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See

See beautifully portrays the lives of Mi-ja and Young-sook, who are members of their village’s diving corporate connected Jeju Island. Their communicative unfolds against the backdrop of humanities events similar Japanese colonialism, World War II, and the Korean War. While the 2 girls stock a beardown bond, societal pressures endanger to thrust a wedge betwixt them. The main situation arises from Mi-ja’s family, who supported Japan’s imperial regularisation and were against Korea’s independence.

On Fragile Waves by E. Lily Yu

Yu’s caller is simply a stunning enactment of fabulist fabrication that transports readers to a war-torn Afghanistan. Against this bleak backdrop, a household clings to anticipation and comfortableness done the powerfulness of imagination. The siblings, Firuzeh and Nour, embark connected a travel to Australia with their parents, but the travel is acold from creaseless sailing. Despite their challenges, the children find solace successful their shared phantasy world. However, arsenic the communicative unfolds, it becomes wide that world cannot beryllium ignored forever.