Critics and readers have lavished praise on Raymond Fortunato’s second short story collection, The Hypókrisis Mirror and Other Stories, “each story is unique, full of humor, quirkiness and insight”, “Incisive, amusing thought-provoking. Unputdownable.” 

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The title story features a mirror that shows people who they really are—not just their superficial reflection. In “Grythomoresome,” a 41-year-old nurse has an imaginary friend, who’s also a Martian, and who acts as a voice of reason in his life. What will the friend’s advice be regarding fears about his adult nephew, who’s been spending unsupervised time with his five-year-old daughter? “At the Wedding or Haikus and Our-kus” finds computer programmer Peter falling for his co-worker Miryam; he even contemplates marriage, although he’s a devout Catholic and she’s Orthodox Jewish, make things difficult. In “A Tiny Pebble,”  Lorrain must decide what to do when her best friend tells her of plans to take an action that horrifies her. In “Rock, Paper, Scissors,” a New Yorker awaiting a friend thinks back to the pair’s lifetime of relentless competition. In some stories, friends do things that villains might do, and enemies prove they’re not such bad people. In “The Great Silence,” young Andrew and Maya’s mother, Doris, takes them to a vacation cottage, where it seems that nothing will shake Doris from her perpetually joyful state. In “Charity”, a writer takes Shela, a financially struggling theatre director to lunch. He soon wonders who is being charitable to the other.  In “The Personal Statement,” college seniors Sam and Elizabeth apply to the same graduate school. Elizabeth’s required personal statement aims for sincerity, but Sam tries something offbeat, which could make all the difference. Friends and co-workers in “It Is What It Is,” who discuss marriage woes and quickly shift their focus to the banality of the story’s titular expression. A mother everyday demands of her son, “What Are You Going To Do With Your Life.” By the time one finishes reading the collection, one agrees with the reader who wondered how “Socrates managed to live long enough to write for The Twilight Zone.”

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The Hypókrisis Mirror and Other Stories 

by Raymond Fortunato​​

Pub Date: May 5, 2026

ISBN-13 979-8-9951908-0-6​

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