The thing that gives this story a gravitas beyond that of others in a similar vein - such as ‘The Nine Billion Names of God’ - is that it brings to the fore an

The thing that gives this story a gravitas beyond that of others in a similar vein - such as ‘The Nine Billion Names of God’ - is that it brings to the fore an important theological/philosophical issue: the ‘problem of evil’. A great deal has been said and written about it over the millennia, often in abstract, abstruse and sometimes tendentious terms, but this story cuts to the heart of the matter. If it makes some readers uncomfortable, it is working.