Which C.S. Lewis work records his reflections on grief after Joy Davidman’s death?

A Grief Observed records C.S. Lewis’s reflections after Joy Davidman’s death.

Lewis wrote the book in 1960 after Davidman died from cancer on 13 July of that year. It was first published under the pseudonym N.W. Clerk, partly because Lewis did not want the work treated simply as a public account of his private life. Later editions identified Lewis as the author.

The short book presents an intensely personal examination of mourning, doubt, anger, memory, and faith. Lewis questions how religious belief feels during bereavement rather than offering a detached theological explanation. Its direct style has made it a frequently read work on grief.

The title can be confused with The Problem of Pain, an earlier apologetic work that examines suffering in a more systematic way. A Grief Observed instead comes from lived experience following the loss of Lewis’s wife and is closely tied to the final years of his life.