BODIES OF WATER by Michelle Cliff...

BODIES OF WATER by Michelle Cliff (Plume/Penguin: $9.95; 155 pp.). The characters in these overlapping stories conceal dark secrets beneath calm, respectable facades. In the title story, a brother and sister recall their harsh upbringing in a series of letters; a placid matron reveals her involvement in a concealed murder in “Election Day 1984.” An African-American woman flees America after the lynching of her brother only to find herself at the mercy of the Nazis in “A Woman Who Plays the Trumpet Is Deported.” The author of two collections of poetry, Cliff skillfully builds her stories out of short sentences and fragments.