“You just have to admire all the possibilities,” says one character in Patrick Lawler’s short story collection, The Meaning of If—a sentence that encapsulates the myriad of “if’s” explored in these pages. At times surreal and yet so realistic, we hear each “muffled whisper,” we see each “muddy photograph,” we know each “secret life,” as if it were our own. These are familial stories of transition and transformation—both mental and physical—that consider the question “What if?”

PATRICK LAWLER lives in Syracuse, NY. He has written five previous poetry collections and one novel. He teaches at SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry and is also Writer in Residence at LeMoyne College.