Eight books that wrestle with the complexities of religion

Michelle Webster-Hein and her family work a small homestead in the southern Michigan countryside where she was born and raised.

Out of Esau is her first novel.

At Electric Lit Webster-Hein tagged eight books -- fiction and non-fiction -- that interrogate spirituality with nuance, including:

Abide with Me by Elizabeth Strout

One of Strout’s earlier novels (written before the Pulitzer-prize-winning Olive Kitteridge), Abide with Me explores the age-old question, “If there is a God, why is there suffering?” Strout approaches this question from a particularly challenging point of view—that of Tyler Caskey, a minister in the 1950s whose wife has died and left him with two young daughters to raise. Caskey navigates his suffering alongside his faith, somehow handling both in a way that suggests it can indeed be done, even in the face of great adversity.

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue