Joshua Ferris is the author of Then We Came To The End, a 2007 National Book Award Finalist and one of the New York Times's top ten books of the year. The book centers around a depressed group of employees at a Chicago ad agency at the turn of the century. We discuss how to make fiction funny, web design and why New York is a good city for drinking. Then We Came To End was released in paperback today.

I really loved your book. But it was one of the most depressing books I've ever read. I couldn't imagine a worse college graduation gift than your book.

It's probably a cautionary tale, isn't it? Did you like it?

It affected me so much. I remember being on the subway and I couldn't even look it at, I was just so sad thinking about these characters and their office life. Sorry to be so effusive, that's not very professional. But I thought it was a really great book.

That's very kind of you to say. I'm sorry it made you sad.

One of the things I thought was really interesting about the book in terms of how it was marketed, was you had a really well done website. Were you behind that at all?

Yeah. I wanted a website, and even considered paying for it myself, although Little, Brown was quick to realize the potential. So they hired a guy whose name is Jefferson Rabb and we got together at the Grey Dog Coffee House.

I love that place! It's really good after Film Forum.

It's good any time because it's also got a liquor license and you can go there at night and have a beer. So we tossed around some ideas, and suddenly realized that I was going to spend more time on the website than I did on the book. But it was fun, it was entirely different endeavour than writing fiction. But Jeff and I played off each other pretty well. It was a very collaborative effort.

Why was it so important for you to have such an interactive website?

Well, this particular book lends itself to that kind of thing. For a future book, I don't think I would do it. The office setting and multitude of characters they lend a website a lot of content potential.

It definitely added a dimension to the book and to the reading experience. When I was reading it, I wasn't thinking of the layout of the office and then you could see it [on the site]. It was like a map to the book.

That's good, that was in part of the objective. The book, even though it made you sad, it was supposed to be funny in parts.

No, it was very funny.

I actually happen to agree with your reading. I find it to be a very sad book, too. But we got a chance to be playful [on the site], and being playful is always a good thing.

It was playful, but it was kind of like a joke about someone who has one leg. Even if it's funny, the person has one leg at the end of the joke.

So, I'm picking on one-legged people, huh?

Well, office workers.

One-legged office workers.

One thing that's interesting about you having a book–apparently books are dying–with a web presence, is that your book is set in Web 1.0, and now it's out in Web 2.0. So were you thinking about the parallels between those two bubbles when you wrote the book?

No, I was just thinking about the first one. What's interesting is how the world changed between them because of September 11 mainly, the war in Iraq and political changes. The book does take a leap in time toward the end. I've been so removed from advertising.

Were you really writing the book at your desk while you were at work?

Well, I was writing a very different version in fits and starts. I was writing primarily stories, but taking notes and observing.

Was it awkward for you seeing your colleagues after the book came out?

No, my former colleagues might want to extrapolate real life models from the characters, but the truth of the matter is put on the page, it has to do his or her thing and very quickly separates him or herself from whatever original conception I had of him or her.

90, 95 perfect of the book is entirely fictional.

If I had written my chronicle of my time at work, I would be using those pages as kinder. They would bore the piss out of everyone, even the people I was writing about.