Connected Underneath

Madena, upstate New York. Like any other small town, everybody keeps an eye on everybody else’s business without recognizing the secrets that connect them. The wheelchair-bound Celeste conjures up lives from what she sees and thinks she sees while peering through binoculars from her kitchen fan vent. Fifteen-year old Persephone trades sex for tattoo sessions that get her high and help her forget her girlfriend doesn’t love her. Theo was the high-school bad boy who couldn’t have the respectable girl he adored from afar, but now, sitting behind the counter of the last video store in town, worries wretchedly about the restless daughter he never understood. Natalie, trying to grasp the last shreds of respectability, would do anything to forget the baby she gave up long ago, including betray her husband and son. Celeste, longing to connect, combines truth with fantasy, intervenes and interferes, finally understanding that things have gone terribly wrong and that she stands at the heart of disaster. Connected Underneath is a lyrical, scalpel-keen dissection of the ties that bind and of those that dissolve.

O for God’s sake
they are connected
underneath

They look at each other
across the glittering sea
some keep a low profile

Some are cliffs
The bathers think
islands are separate like them

– “Islands” by Muriel Rukeyser

Praise for Connected Underneath

“A potent story that offers an engaging meditation on the most basic desire—to know oneself.” – from Kirkus Reviews

“A gem of a novel, CONNECTED UNDERNEATH explores the tragedies that ensue when family members hide enormous secrets.  I was riveted by the small-town intrigues and heart-breaking characters who struggle to be themselves.  Breathless as I finished the last page, I eagerly await Legters’s next masterpiece.” –  Daniel M. Jaffe, author of THE GENEALOGY OF UNDERSTANDING, a novel-in-stories.

“There are endless, unseen, silent depths and distance between islands. But of course, underneath, they are connected. This short novel delivers an infinitely large message without sentimentality. Highly recommended.” – Susan Rukeyser Not On Fire, Only Dying  

“A glimpse into small town life full of suspense, moments of tenderness, leaving the reader with lots to contemplate, plenty avenues open for deep discussion. Understatedly moving story.” – from Raven Haired Girl 

” . . . rich, full of texture and depth. I will remember this narrative and these characters for a long time.” – from Cindy Roeselo’s Thoughts on This ‘N That

““The story is kind of bizarrely addicting . . . an EXCELLENT pick for a book club.” – from Stranded in Chaos

“Connected Underneath is a story about secrets —those we keep from each other and those we keep from ourselves. It is also a story about the damage we can do, both willfully and inadvertently.” —The Lucid Reader