The book Kirkus Reviews calls “an engaging epic about loss, loneliness, and desire that perfectly encapsulates relatable human struggles.”
“Hidden” is the theme of my novel Under Water. Secrets hidden on an antique property and secrets hidden between people, things too difficult to express.Under Water is a two time-period novel, the present and during the Civil War, set in a farmhouse in Pennsylvania.
Empower Press
January 30, 2024
ASIN : B0CM12DL9S
More about the story below…
The Story
There’s no more hiding from the past when the dust of history is washed away.
During the pandemic, 60-something Iris’s marriage has stuttered into emotional silence, though neither she nor her husband can reveal why. To repair the rift, they buy an antique house over the internet, travel across country and find they have purchased a wreck. And their pond holds a dark secret.
Unknown to Iris, her life story reflects that of Irish immigrant Aoife, married to the son of a well-to-do family during the Civil War. When her husband leaves to fight for the Union, she must keep their farm running with only the help of Thomas, a free-born Black man who longs to serve but is not allowed to enlist. He brings to the farm his unstable and jealous wife.
As Aoife and Thomas toil side by side, ripples of the consequences spread to the present, when, to spite her husband for his infatuation with another woman, Iris befriends an intrusive, mysterious young woman who seems obsessed with their house.
When the dust of history is washed away, Iris realizes she cannot hide from the past, neither her own nor that of the house. It is the pond’s tragic secret that tears things apart and then connects them over the centuries.
Those who lived 160 years ago had the same problems we have now: mental illness, PTSD, childbirth, grieving and loss. Under Water explores the timeless ability of people to overcome adversity.