Buckeye: A Read with Jenna Pick

READ WITH JENNA BOOK CLUB PICK AS FEATURED ON TODAY - "A small-town novel of epic proportions" (Tom Perrotta), this captivating story weaves the intimate lives of two midwestern families across generations, from World War II to the late twentieth century.

"I love this book with my entire heart."--Ann Napolitano, New York Times bestselling author of Hello Beautiful

One town. Two families. A secret that changes everything.

In Bonhomie, Ohio, a stolen moment of passion, sparked in the exuberant aftermath of the Allied victory in Europe, binds Cal Jenkins, a man wounded not in war but by his inability to serve in it, to Margaret Salt, a woman trying to obscure her past. Cal's wife, Becky, has a spiritual gift: She is a seer who can conjure the dead, helping families connect with those they've lost. Margaret's husband, Felix, is serving on a Navy cargo ship, out of harm's way--until a telegram suggests that the unthinkable might have happened.

Later, as the country reconstructs in the postwar boom, a secret grows in Bonhomie--but nothing stays buried forever in a small town. Against the backdrop of some of the most transformative decades in modern America, the consequences of that long-ago encounter ripple through the next generation of both families, compelling them to reexamine who they thought they were and what the future might hold.

Sweeping yet intimate, rich with piercing observation and the warmth that comes from profound understanding of the human spirit, Buckeye captures the universal longing for love and for goodness.

Author: Patrick Ryan
Publisher: Random House
Published: 09/02/2025
Pages: 464
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.56lbs
Size: 9.47h x 6.57w x 1.54d
ISBN: 9780593595039


Review Citation(s):
Library Journal 07/01/2025 pg. 4
Booklist 07/01/2025 pg. 31
Publishers Weekly 07/28/2025
Kirkus Reviews 08/01/2025
BookPage 09/01/2025

About the Author
Patrick Ryan is the author of the story collections The Dream Life of Astronauts (named one of the Best Books of the Year by the St. Louis Times-Dispatch, Literary Hub, Refinery29, and Electric Literature, and longlisted for The Story Prize) and Send Me. 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 current editor-in-chief of the literary magazine One Story. He lives in New York City.