Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives message of the book is the importance of exploring new ideas beyond the ones that have been traditionally passed down. The title word "Sum" refers to the Latin for "I am," as in "Cogito ergo sum". Like Italo Calvino's "Invisible Cities", "Sum" does not fit entirely into the traditional category of a novel. "Sum" has been called "philosofiction", an "experimental novel", and "a collection of thought experiments". Most of the stories are understood to "posit the afterlife as mirroring life on Earth" The New York Times Book Review called Sum a "delightful, thought-provoking little collection [which] belongs to that category
Mr. Cogito Laments On The Pettiness of Dreams"), "Pan Cogito a poeta w pewnym wieku" ("Mr. Cogito And A Poet Of A Certain Age"), "Pan Cogito a pop" ("Mr Cogito And Pop Music"), "Pan Cogito o magii" ("Mr. Cogito On Magic"), "Pan Cogito spotyka w Luwrze posążek Wielkiej Matki" ("Mr. Cogito Encounters A Figurine Of The Great Mother In The Louvre"), "Pan Cogito opowiada o kuszeniu Spinozy" ("Mr. Cogito Narrates The Temptation Of Spinoza"), "Pan Cogito otrzymuje czasem dziwne listy" ("Mr Cogito Occasionally Receives Strange Letters"), "Rozmyślania Pana Cogito o odkupieniu" ("Mr Cogito's Meditations On Redemption"), "Pan Cogito szuka rady" ("Mr. Cogito