the holy woman - theres a sequel to that book, Typhoon 
i think the books ending is shocking, i remember feeling disappointed too lol, but it was supposed to be sad irony i guess and i think it was a pretty good twist,even if t was sad! i havent seen the movie,didint know that they changed the ending,wonder how the author felt about that?!
did you know that author of angela’s ashes died last year? he had cancer i think,not sure. have you read his second book? Tis i think its called
A Child Called It, one of the saddest books ever, it also got everyone jumping on the bandwagon i think and releasing their own sad real life stories.