Books that are tearjerkers

 Okay, so this one from Long and Short Reviews was a tough one. I'll be the first person to admit that I don't cry over books. I don't generally read the sort of books one might cry over - fair play to Nicholas Sparks, but give me a happy ending any day. So I was struggling to think of any book I might consider a tearjerker.

Then I remembered "The Time Traveller's Wife".

I admit I only read it because of all the press attention it got, so I was pleasantly surprised to enjoy it more than I thought I would. Of course, we all know - and I think the book and film have been out long enough for it not to be a spoiler - that Henry dies near the end, so that part was obviously going to be a downer, but I wasn't particularly expecting it to affect me.

However.

As the scene is presented, Henry tells Clare on New Year's Eve that he's about to make the final time-jump that will kill him. Henry has no control over when or where he will jump, so there is nothing either of them can do but sit and wait for it to happen. And I was immediately reminded of my father's last days in hospice, when my family and I were sitting watching his chest rise and fall and knowing that at any moment there would be no more breaths. There is something devastating about knowing that the person in front of you is about to die and there is literally nothing you can do but watch.

Which is probably why I never read the book or saw the film more than once.

So which books do you think of as tearjerkers?