When Milica Stanković is born, she won’t stop crying. The neighours complain, her father is demoted at work, and the family are treated like pariahs. Regardless, they see something special in their daughter, how she seems possessed of a rare gift: to feel other people’s pain and suffering as if it’s her own.

Her father and a wily confidence trickster dream up a plot to hire out Milica’s services as a professional mourner. At many funerals, Milica expresses such raw emotion, it reduces the other mourners to fits of sobs, enabling to finally release all their bottled-up grief.

When word of her gifts reaches a high-ranking government official, he desperately wants to obtain her services. Their ailing leader is not only gravely ill, but his popularity has never been lower. If the Party can organise an emotionally charged state funeral, they might just be able to uplift the nation’s spirits.

About the author:

Neil Randall is a novelist and short story writer. His next book, The Belgrade School Shootings (Alien Buddha Press), will come out in May this year. His shorter fiction and poetry have been published in the U.K., U.S., India, Australia, and Canada.

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