What is life, a tragedy or a comedy? This is not a question about whether life is hilarious, since mostly it is not. It is a question about whether life is hopeful. A tragedy has joy in it but ends in pain: it is shaped like a frown, up and then down. A comedy has pain in it but ends in joy: shaped like a smile, down and then up.

So which is it? The world tells you that life is a tragedy - full of fun, and ending in the pit. Glen Scrivener asks whether there is any hope that the shape runs the other way, and answers from the one story that claims to end in joy on the far side of real pain. Short, and a good thing to hand to a thoughtful unbeliever.