The Professional Mourner — Neil Randall

When Milica Stankovic is born, she won't stop crying. The neighbours complain, her father is demoted at work, and the family is treated like pariahs. Regardless, her parents 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.When her father becomes friendly with a wily confidence trickster, they dream up a plot to hire out Milica's services as a professional mourner. At the many funerals she attends, Milica expresses such raw emotion that it reduces the other mourners to fits of sobs, enabling them to finally release all their bottled-up grief, even for those who might not deserve it.When word of Milica's abilities reaches a high-ranking government official, Dusan Srna, 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, Srna might just be able to uplift the nation's spirits---but are his motives honorable?