About the Book
A Read With Jenna Book Club Pick September 2025
One town. Two families. A secret that changes everything.
‘Poignant, powerful’ Independent
‘Omniscient, sweeping, almost defiantly sentimental’ New York Times
‘It’s not just a great Midwestern novel, it’s a great novel, period’ Financial Times
‘I’ve been yearning for a novel that connects the American generations who dealt with our two Wars – one of Omaha Beach, the other of the Ia Drang Valley. Buckeye is that book, and it soars’ TOM HANKS
‘Funny and tender ... Patrick Ryan has long been one of my favourite writers’ ANN PATCHETT
‘I love this novel with my entire heart … Wise and heartbreaking’ ANN NAPOLITANO
May, 1945. As news of the Allied victory in Europe reaches the small town of Bonhomie, Ohio, a woman named Margaret Salt walks into a hardware store and asks the man behind the counter, Cal Jenkins, for a radio. What happens next will change both of their lives forever.
While the country reconstructs in the post-war boom, a secret grows in Bonhomie – and nothing can remain hidden in a small town. The consequences of that long-ago encounter will intertwine the fates of two families, rippling through the next generation and compelling them to re-examine who they thought they were and what the future might hold.
Full of compassion, humour and charm, Buckeye is a dazzling portrait of the human spirit by way of one unforgettable community; the twisted roads we take to achieve forgiveness and redemption; and above all a universal longing for love and connection.
About the Author :
Patrick Ryan's short story collection The Dream Life of Astronauts was named one of the Best Books of the Year by the St. Louis Times-Dispatch, LitHub, Refinery 29 and Electric Literature, and was longlisted for The Story Prize. His debut collection of linked short stories, Send Me, was chosen for Barnes & Noble’s Discover New Writers program. His work has appeared in The Best American Short Stories, the anthology Tales of Two Cities, and elsewhere. The former associate editor of Granta, he is the editor-in-chief of the literary magazine One Story. He lives in New York City.
patrickryanbooks.com
Instagram: @patrickryannyc
Review :
I’ve been yearning for a novel that connects the American generations who dealt with our two Wars – one of Omaha Beach, the other of the Ia Drang Valley. Buckeye is that book, and it soars
Written in the key of Dickens ... This widescreen yet intimate tapestry is masterfully woven together and Ryan succeeds in a conjuring a believable story of love (of all kinds) in a time of tension and conflict ... Recalls the early novels of John Irving. The triumph of his book is the way it captures the nature of mistakes, both the holes dug and the bridges built. It’s not just a great Midwestern novel, it’s a great novel, period
Patrick Ryan’s emotionally engaging and psychologically astute novel follows two couple over the course of 30 years … The protagonists deal with the moral complexities of war, grief, parenthood and sexuality, in a beautifully observed and deeply affecting novel
A family saga, a ghost story, an affair novel and a social history rolled into one ... The novel is both ambitious in scope and startlingly nimble, a story that tackles dark times with lightness and compassion
A poignant, powerful exploration of small-town America
A gentle, humane family saga of quiet competence and occasional grace ... An affectionate portrait
The world Ryan creates is complex and detailed. The people of Bonhomie are filled in with precise, economical details, and the passage of time skilfully handled … The assurance of the debut is astonishing … The quality of his writing is what really sustains the momentum. This is sweeping-family-saga stuff, but the writing is crisp and witty, with a nicely-judged balance of intimacy and distance
Heartfelt and at times harrowing, Buckeye is both an absorbing portrait of an American past and a sympathetic exploration of what continues to sustain us – and to plague us. There are no heroes or villains in Patrick Ryan's wonderful novel, only recognisably human creatures, each one of them drawn with refreshing honesty; each one flawed, noble, confused, passionate, lonely, loving, and, above all, real
A glorious sweep of a novel, full of love and war and the perilous intimacies of small town life. It’s funny and tender, realistic and strange. Patrick Ryan has long been one of my favourite writers. I have a feeling that with this book he’s going to be everyone's favourite writer
I love this novel with my entire heart. Patrick Ryan has created a world, and characters, that exist inside me now, and as a reader that is my deepest joy. Buckeye tells the story of two families across sixty years of American history; the novel is wise and heartbreaking and full of wonderful characters who struggle across decades – as we all do – to live as their whole selves. I could not recommend this book more highly
Tender, funny, forgiving and so cleverly wrought
Offers just about everything I look for in a great story: a vivid setting, historical sweep, rich characters who break your heart even as they make you laugh - and all of this in abundance
A small-town novel of epic proportions, full of unforgettable characters and thorny human dilemmas. Patrick Ryan conjures a vanished America with uncanny skill, and writes with deep insight and lyrical intelligence about war and adultery, the mysteries of sexuality and family life, and the strange paths we have to travel to forgive – or at least begin to understand – the people who’ve hurt us the most. This is a novel to settle in with, a world unto itself
Patrick Ryan’s Buckeye is a deeply compassionate book, expansive in scope, yet trained with extraordinary focus on the secrets that divide and bind us. Ryan brings to life two unexpectedly overlapping families in one small Ohio town, people driven by longing and bruised by loss. In this elegant and quietly bracing novel, Ryan tells a story I very much needed right now: how forgiveness might creep up – despite everything – over time, tender and elusive and ever-complex. I was taken in by this book, utterly transported
Very occasionally, a book comes along so accomplished, so throbbing with the very essence of life, I know I will be pressing it upon people for many years to come. The last book to have had this impact upon me was Richard Powers’ The Overstory, a devastating examination of the damage humanity has inflicted upon the natural environment. Buckeye, the debut novel by Patrick Ryan, has done the same. It is an amazing achievement.
Big-hearted, enveloping ... Richly painted, moving and told with compassion
I was swept up in the first few pages of this tender and richly told novel of marriage and family, connection and community ... A novel that has echoes of Paul Murray’s The Bee Sting. A monumental achievement
Luminous and tender ... Buckeye is elevated throughout by the precision with which [Ryan] captures the tiny, haunting glories of everyday suburban life ... Ryan’s characters are universally nuanced and finely wrought, their gently interpolated inner monologues giving the lie to the pleasant respectability they strive to project
Beautifully written, Buckeye is a reminder how extraordinary “ordinary” people's life are
I would recommend this to someone who wants to rediscover their love of reading ... He's a fantastic storyteller. I shed a tear on the first read and just as many the second time around ... I think people will fall in love with it
