If Joy Davidman is known at all, it's as the wife of C. S. Lewis, author of The Chronicles of Narnia. On her own, she was a poet and radical, a contributor to the communist journal New Masses, and an active member of New York literary circles of the 1930s and '40s. Growing up in a family of Jewish immigrants in the Bronx, she became an atheist, then a practitioner of Dianetics, and finally a Christian convert after experiencing a moment of transcendent grace. She was also a mother, a novelist, a screenwriter, and an intelligent, difficult, and determined woman. In 1952 she set off for England to pursue C. S. Lewis, the man she considered her spiritual guide and her intellectual mentor. Out of a deep friendship grounded in faith, poetry, and a passion for writing grew a timeless love story, and an unforgettable marriage of equals-one that would be immortalized in the film Shadowlands and Lewis's memoir, A Grief Observed. Finally, Joy Davidman is brought out of her husband's shadow to secure a place in literary history that is both a long-time coming and well-deserved.
"[An] impressive debut biography...Santamaria has fashioned a compelling narrative, remaining clear-eyed about her subject's many personal failings."
Kirkus Reviews
"Santamaria's debut is sure to get attention from C. S. Lewis scholars and fans...Those who want to know the real Davidman will discover a woman in search of purpose and meaning who finally finds it in the faith and person of Lewis."
Library Journal
"Joy captures the toughness, the dreams, the hypocrisy, of a complex and controversial woman."
