In 20 stories (both new and selected from his four previous collections), Richard Burgin explores our quest for identity and love, truth and family, as well as darker themes of betrayal and crime. In "The Identity Club" we meet an extraordinarily variegated cast of characters, including prostitutes and businessmen, a famous young writer and a homeless basketball player, an ambitious but thwarted composer. There are love stories, murder stories, as well as stories of transcendence, both imagined and real. The 20 songs on the accompanying CD, while not directly related to the stories, express many of the same moods and emotions found in "The Identity Club," from the darkly lyrical to the exultant.