CS. Lewis, Till We Have Faces. The classical myth of Cupid and Psyche is retold by Lewis in the form of a historical novel – with stunning effect. An early reviewer noted: “Till We Have Faces weaves into one fabric the varied strands of C.S. Lewis’s amazing productivity. By successfully bringing such diverse elements into imaginative unity, it exerts, far beyond most novels, that combination of awfulness, wonder, and attraction which is what the word fascination, in its Latin form, really meant.”

The heroine is Orual, eldest daughter of the King of Glome – a little barbarous state on the borders of the ancient Greek empire. Embittered by the loss of her beloved sister, Psyche, Orual dedicates her life to ruling the kingdom she inherits at the death of her brutal, tyrannical father. As queen she is an unqualified success, but personally she remains unconsoled on every front. She wears a veil over her face at all times in public to hide her physical unattractiveness. Spiritually she undergoes a hard journey from her native paganism, through apostasy, then the Platonism of the great empire – to a final illumination and surrender to God at the very end of her life.

A story of unsurpassed power and beauty – and a deeply convincing modern answer to the question of Job: why does God allow good men –   and women – to suffer?