The Moonstone- Wilkie Collins  (1868) 
One of the first ‘Detective’ novels. This one felt really familiar to me and about 100 pages into it, I realized I had watched a BBC adaptation a few years ago. Supposed to have been THE detective novel that popularized the genre. 

La Storia- Elsa Morante  (1974) 
I used to think Russian literature was dark. Well Italian literature is darker.  
This story is a great mix (at least for people like me who like history) of a local story given within a broader historical context. Each of the chapters contains a particular year. It starts with a broad context of the events of that year, and then gives what was happening in the lives of the protagonists. 

The story starts with a backdrop of Ida, a half Jewish Italian widower growing up in the years leading to WWII. After Germany enters Italy, she is raped by a German soldier and gets pregnant. She already has a 13 year-old son, Nino, who is defiant by nature. Then she has a tiny underdeveloped second son. She is paralyzed by fear of being found out as a Jew and taken by the Nazi’s. She escapes this during the war, but her older son is involved in various underground activities and is eventually killed post-war by the police while trying to smuggle guns into the country. Meanwhile, the younger, underdeveloped son exhibits seizures and refuses to go to school. She is unable to confront him and eventually he drops out and just roams the countryside during the day. He eventually suffers a series of seizures that kills him. Mom simply gives up and sits in a catatonic state. She lives for another 9 years before dying. 

There are a stream of side characters that die tragically as well. We all die, the end.  

If I were to guess, this will never be made into a hallmark movie.