Five top books about the human and the divine

Karen Lord is the award-winning, Barbadian author of Redemption in Indigo, The Best of All Possible Worlds and The Galaxy Game, and editor of the anthology New Worlds, Old Ways: Speculative Tales from the Caribbean. One of her five favorite books that "show the perils and joys of a life lived beyond the boundaries of self, a life that finds the divine in the human, and the human in the divine," as shared at Tor.com:

Till We Have Faces, by C. S. Lewis

Set in an ancient civilization where religion can be more powerful than kings, this story is the Cupid and Psyche myth retold from the point of view of Orual. She is an ugly princess, and Psyche is her beautiful half sister who is first worshipped by her people then beloved by a god so beautiful (or bestial) that mortal eyes cannot look upon him. Orual’s jealousy and love leads Psyche to betray her divine lover and be cast out in exile. Having lost her sister, Orual returns to her kingdom, learns to use the power of a mask, and gradually becomes a warrior and ruler of her people. Also bound to the god of love, she completes the same tasks imposed on Psyche, and discovers in the end what is needed for the human to meet the divine face to face.

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue