Buckeye

‘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
In Bonhomie, Ohio, a wartime affair keeps two people afloat through their less-than-ideal marriages. But in small towns nothing stays hidden forever, and on the fourth of July, when the town comes together to celebrate its Centennial and the ten-year anniversary of the end of the war, the firework display of personal revelations drowns out the sound of actual fireworks.
There's Becky and her well-meaning seances; her husband, Cal, with his one short leg and the multiple discomforts it brings him; Everett and his furious correspondence with the president; and Margaret, with her obsessive decorating and attempts to paper over the horrors of her childhood, while her husband Felix keeps parts of his own life safely hidden. And then there's the question of Tom...
Full of compassion, humour and small-town charm, Buckeye is a dazzling portrait of an unforgettable community - of hopes and fears, loves and losses, and above all an indomitable longing for connection.

Patrick Ryan