Sorrow

An office worker in Purgatory seeks consolation and hope by sending himself postcards and email messages from an imaginary holiday destination. When discovered, he is sent there.

… When he got home that evening there was a beautiful sunlit holiday postcard in his letterbox, addressed to him and signed Williby. It was a breathless and ecstatic message describing unimaginable tropical delights and so looking forward to seeing him soon. It brought tears of longing to his eyes so sharp that they glittered like crystals on his cheek. They cracked and shattered when he wiped them away, but the promise shone within him like stars.
Williby sighed and closed his eyes but when he opened them again he was still there…

Sorrow is a free story from The World Is Round, available now.

A great philosopher's masterwork is unravelled by a duck, an influential talk show host begins executing his guests, and a baby enchants a murderous African dictator in this collection of seventeen short stories. A work of poignant satire and extraordinary imagination, The World Is Round is always weird, sometimes bleak, and frequently hilarious.