There isn’t just one single protagonist, but *How High We Go in the Dark* by Sequoia Nagamatsu should get the job done.
RedditRecs on
a few that might fit what you’re after:
**a little life** by hanya yanagihar… brutally sad but powerful; definitely puts things in perspective.
**never let me go** by kazuo ishiguro.. quiet, haunting, and deeply human.
**the kite runner** by khaled hosseini… heavy, emotional, but ends with a sense of redemption.
**of mice and men** by john steinbeck… short and devastating.
**the book thief** by markus zusak… heartbreaking but oddly comforting.
**room** by emma donoghue.. dark premise, ultimately about survival and love.
**the road** by cormac mccarthy… bleak world, but the bond between father and son carries hope.
**the nightingale** by kristin hannah… wartime tragedy with an emotional but uplifting finish.
if you want something raw but not hopeless, *a man called ove* by fredrik backman is a good balance. sad but life-affirming.
Amazing-Can7354 on
Stoner by John Williams
smile-david on
Circe by Madlen Miller
Jolene11711 on
White Oleander
ToneSenior7156 on
The Girl in the Green Sweater is a WW2 and beyond memoir of a girl and her family who hide in Lviv, Poland sewer for the last two years of the war. Hats off to that mother and father. I read books about experiences like that and…it really does make me appreciate EVERYTHING and EVERYONE I have.
PsychopompousEnigma on
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. Children raised in an isolated boarding school who find out their lives are more tragic than they knew.
Burial Rites by Hannah Kent. Historical fiction set in early-19th-century Iceland about a woman condemned to death and placed in a remote farm’s custody while awaiting her execution.
mckrd0 on
I Who Have Never Known Men
UtterZangster on
Elinor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman 😢
really good read!
11 Comments
A little life
Alchemised.
There isn’t just one single protagonist, but *How High We Go in the Dark* by Sequoia Nagamatsu should get the job done.
a few that might fit what you’re after:
**a little life** by hanya yanagihar… brutally sad but powerful; definitely puts things in perspective.
**never let me go** by kazuo ishiguro.. quiet, haunting, and deeply human.
**the kite runner** by khaled hosseini… heavy, emotional, but ends with a sense of redemption.
**of mice and men** by john steinbeck… short and devastating.
**the book thief** by markus zusak… heartbreaking but oddly comforting.
**room** by emma donoghue.. dark premise, ultimately about survival and love.
**the road** by cormac mccarthy… bleak world, but the bond between father and son carries hope.
**the nightingale** by kristin hannah… wartime tragedy with an emotional but uplifting finish.
if you want something raw but not hopeless, *a man called ove* by fredrik backman is a good balance. sad but life-affirming.
Stoner by John Williams
Circe by Madlen Miller
White Oleander
The Girl in the Green Sweater is a WW2 and beyond memoir of a girl and her family who hide in Lviv, Poland sewer for the last two years of the war. Hats off to that mother and father. I read books about experiences like that and…it really does make me appreciate EVERYTHING and EVERYONE I have.
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. Children raised in an isolated boarding school who find out their lives are more tragic than they knew.
Burial Rites by Hannah Kent. Historical fiction set in early-19th-century Iceland about a woman condemned to death and placed in a remote farm’s custody while awaiting her execution.
I Who Have Never Known Men
Elinor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman 😢
really good read!