What is the title of C.S. Lewis's 1942 book about suffering and the problem of pain?

C.S. Lewis's 1942 book about suffering and the problem of pain is The Problem of Pain.

Published in 1940, The Problem of Pain examines why suffering exists if God is both good and powerful. Lewis discusses divine goodness, human freedom, punishment, animal pain, and hell within a broadly Christian framework. The book is an apologetic work rather than a personal diary.

The date is an important correction to the wording sometimes used in summaries: the book was published in 1940, not 1942. Lewis wrote it before the death of his wife Joy Davidman, so it does not describe the immediate experience of bereavement that appears in A Grief Observed.

Lewis later wrote that The Problem of Pain did not prepare him emotionally for personal grief. The two books therefore address related subjects from different positions: one develops a theological argument, while the other records a painful personal struggle.