What 1956 work by C.S. Lewis recounts his grief after his wife’s death?

A Grief Observed is C.S. Lewis’s 1956 work about his grief after his wife’s death.

Lewis originally published the book under the pseudonym N.W. Clerk. It consists of reflections written after the death of Joy Davidman, whom Lewis had married in 1956. The book addresses bereavement, anger, doubt, loneliness, and the difficulty of maintaining religious certainty during suffering.

The work is notably different in tone from Lewis’s more formal apologetic writing. Rather than offering a polished argument, it presents an intensely personal record of a grieving husband’s thoughts.

The pseudonym sometimes makes the book seem anonymous or detached from Lewis’s biography. Later editions identified Lewis as the author, allowing readers to place the work directly within the story of his marriage and loss. It remains one of his most personal books.