“Do you think it all meant nothing, all the longing? The longing for home? For indeed it now feels not like going, but like going back.”

-C.S. Lewis

With all the mythology retellings that have been getting popular lately, I wish more love was shown to one of the absolute best novels of the genre. Lewis’ Till We Have Faces retells the story of Eros and Psyche, but from the perspective of Orual, Psyche’s older sister. The novel is about love in all of its heartbreaking and toxic forms, and it’s one of the few books I re-read regularly.

Lewis’s prose is stunning, and the character of Orual is everything I want from a female protagonist–complex, interesting, loving, bitter, for much of the novel somewhat of a mystery to both the reader and herself. The division of the book into its two acts brings the reader on the journey of experience and self-reflection with Orual, as she confronts herself, her community, the the gods themselves.

The novel is very internal and character-driven, and one of those books that I feel you get something different out of every time you read it, depending on where you are in life and on your relationships with those around you. It’s a succulent, moving experience that’s a must-read for anyone with any interest in the tales of ancient myth.