Written after his wife's tragic death as a way of surviving the "mad midnight moment," A Grief Observed is C.S. Lewis's honest reflection on the fundamental issues of life, death, and faith in the midst of loss. This work contains his concise, genuine reflections on that period: "Nothing will shake a man -- or at any rate a man like me -- out of his merely verbal thinking and his merely notional beliefs. He has to be knocked silly before he comes to his senses. Only torture will bring out the truth. Only under torture does he discover it himself." This is a beautiful and unflinchingly honest record of how even a stalwart believer can lose all sense of meaning in the universe, and how he can gradually regain his bearings.

Why We Love This Gift: We love this gift because it is an honest exploration of grief written from the perspective of a preeminent male writer. It explores and conveys universal truths about what it means to live, to love, to mourn. (Patton Oswalt recently described this book as helpful to him following the sudden death of his wife earlier in 2016).

What To Express In Your Card: I am heartbroken for you. I am thinking of you constantly and I am sending you all the support I can offer. Ask me anything.