Ann Patchett Recommends 5 Cry-Worthy Books that Deliver a Big Emotional Payoff—Including One She Wrote

Sometimes there is no stress release quite like a good cry. And often, an emotional book can deliver that moment. We’re talking books so beautiful and heartwrenching—like Charlotte’s Web or The Kite Runner—that you feel gutted, but also grateful. We asked bestselling author Ann Patchett, who has been called the person who “drives the literary conversation” like no one else in the country, for her top book recommendations for stories that tug at our heart in the best kind of ways, and we’re sharing four cathartic books. (Plus Patchett reveals the one super emotional book she isn’t ready to tackle just yet!) So add these book titles to your TBR pile today and get ready, as John Mellencamp sang, to “hurt so good!”

Ann Patchett’s favorite cathartic books

At a live event recently, where award-winning podcaster Zibby Owens interviewed Ann Patchett on stage, we were able to steal away a few minutes with Patchett to pick her book brain. Woman’s World wanted to know, “Are there any stories that have inspired you that felt heartbreaking—but in a good, necessary and cathartic way?” Here are Patchett’s powerful book picks…

‘A Lesson Before Dying’ by Ernest J. Gaines

Patchett suggested this book by Ernest J. Gaines, which she has also recommended at her store Parnassus Books.  “[It] is a book that I loved so passionately when I read it 40 years ago.” She recalled, “I have never in my life cried as hard reading a book as I did for A Lesson Before Dying. It really is an essential book.” Patchett added, “It is a book that, whatever you suffer, reading that book is completely worth it because it reminds us of our humanity and it reminds us about how far we still have to go.”

What is it about? Set in Louisiana in the 1940s, this story follows an uneducated Black man, Jefferson, who is in prison, awaiting the death penalty after being wrongfully accused of murder. While there, an educated plantation schoolteacher visits to teach Jefferson to prepare for his end with dignity.

One reader shared, “When I came to that last chapter, the idea hit me hard… it is a three hanky chapter.”

‘Someone’ by Alice McDermott

This melancholy, bittersweet story touches on true pains in life, including heartbreak, vision problems, loss of faith, mental breakdowns, loneliness, war and death. In a social media reel for her bookstore, Patchett said this about the Alice McDermott book, “It’s so good. It’s heart-stopping.”

What’s it about? Patchett said, “It’s a perfect novel about one woman’s life in Brooklyn in a Catholic family, starting in the 50s when she’s a child, following her growing up, her marriage, her motherhood, her life. It’s about nothing and it’s about absolutely everything.” She adds, “It’s quiet. It’s powerful.” Her advice: “Buy it and read it right away. Move it to the top of the list. It’s brilliant.”

One reader shared, “Do not read this book if you have a work deadline or a colicky baby or need to complete your college thesis… It will strip you bare and rip you to shreds… I wept when I read her words. I wept freely like a child.”

‘The Left and the Lucky’ by Willy Vlautin

“We have a book club at the store, a first editions club, and I’m always wanting to pick one of Willy’s books, but they are so depressing,” Patchett revealed in an interview with CBS. “I honor him and I value so much what he’s doing—because he’s writing about people who never get their stories told.”

So she picked this 2026 novel: The Left and the Lucky centers around a challenging story of American life. Eddie is an overworked, failing housepainter whose wife just left him. Next door lives an 8-year-old boy who feels terrorized by violence. Together the pair cling to each other in their fear and guilt.

One reader said, “This is a beautiful story about human connection in vulnerable circumstances. Vlautin writes… of people living on the margins. He captures loneliness, hardship and resilience.”

‘Tom Lake’ by Ann Patchett

Patchett doesn’t often recommend her own books. But she told a heartfelt story on the National Writers Series stage about listening to her novel Tom Lake being narrated by Meryl Streep for the audiobook version. Patchett sat on a couch during the recording and recalled, “Meryl, as one might imagine, does not make mistakes.” She added, “The second day, she finally stopped to take a sip of water or something, and I said, ‘I cried, I cried when you read that scene.’ And I said, ‘That’s just so embarrassing, I wrote that scene, I know what happened in that scene, and I cried!’” Patchett explained, “The thing you have to know is I am somebody who cries once every five years, and I cry about four tears, so I won’t cry again for four and a half years.” And Meryl Streep apparently told Patchett, “Don’t worry about it. Sometimes late at night, I turn on the television, and one of my old movies is on, and I’ll start watching it, and I’ll cry.”

While this book isn’t a straight-forward tearjerker, it sure elicits emotions, especially from parents missing their children, which is a theme in another emotional bestseller from Patchett: Whistler. In Tom Lake, Lara is a mother retelling her life—and lost loves—to her grown children while sheltering at home during the pandemic on a Michigan cherry farm. While Lara navigates the past, she also focuses on the present: wondering how they will complete the harvest alone.

One reader said: “It’s brimming with love and contains so much honesty when it comes to mother-daughter relationships. It made me want to call my mom and yearn for a daughter one day.”

The one cathartic book Patchett hasn’t read—yet!

Woman’s World asked Patchett, “Is there anything you haven’t read that people would be surprised to learn you’ve missed?”

Patchett said, “I feel like I’ve read nothing. And anybody who is a serious reader feels that way. The more you read, the more you understand that you have not read enough.” So what emotional story is Patchett missing most in her reading repertoire?

‘The Disappearers’ by Marlon James

Sometimes a book is so emotionally cathartic, you have to carefully choose when you want to put yourself through the wringer. Patchett understands that all too well. “So the book that right now I’m feeling guilty that I haven’t read is The Disappearers by Marlon James,” she confessed, exclusively to Woman’s World. “And I haven’t read it because it’s, apparently, emotionally really, really, really hard. The people I know who have read it have said this is a brilliant book, but wow, it’s so hard. And so I think I’ve got to get myself together and read that enormous, really hard, super brilliant book.”

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What is it about? Set in 1988 in Jamaica, it focuses on a group of eight men who share three things in common: They are all rehearsing for a play, they are all queer and they are all victims of a deadly attack. How they choose to recover or process the crime is where their stories diverge.

One reader said: “It ripped my heart out yet I couldn’t put it down… while I was in agony and pain reading much of it… I also felt lifted up and blessed… While reading it, and in the afterglow, I felt my humanity was greater.”

Bottom line: If one thing is clear, the catharsis of reading a good book can be well worth the pain. Ann Patchett’s book picks prove that a heartbreaking book can leave you feeling more connected, rather than shattered. And if you’re ready for an especially emotional read, The Disappearers is waiting on her TBR—and maybe yours!