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Explore membershipsBuckeye: A Read with Jenna Pick
A Novel
Narrator
Michael Crouch
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Length
15 hours 44 minutes
Language
English
Bookseller recommendation
“What a beautiful and sweeping slice-of-life story about two intertwined Midwestern families and the impacts of war and community life on their families. Secrets, a small town, and a touch of sentimentality make this one of my favorite 2025 reads.”
— Lisa • Nooks
Bookseller recommendation
“This family saga is a compulsive listen! ”
— Anne • Cherry Street Books
Bookseller recommendation
“A beautifully written family saga that spans a generation, from WWII to post-Vietnam. I was completely immersed in the story of the Jenkins and Salt families in this historical fiction novel. The characters, imperfect in their own ways, negotiate their lives and secrets that bind them together in the small midwestern town of Bonhomie, Ohio. A most satisfying and heart-filling read. Michael Crouch is the perfect narrator!”
— Donna • The Well-Read Moose
Bookseller recommendation
“Beautiful characters and insight into relationships, how they bend, sometimes break, the legacy of choices made; a lovely portrait of a small community in Ohio in the years surrounding WW2. ”
— Jen • Anderson's Bookshop
Bookseller recommendation
“I cannot recommend this book more! The historical accuracy that helps you understand what’s going on in the lives of the two families this book follows is unmatched. The character development is incredible, and I legitimately empathized with so many characters on different levels that I cannot pick a favorite. And the way this book made me laugh, cry, and sigh with apathy, I want to physically read this book so I can highlight half the pages. The wisdom in this book is timeless, an instant classic to me. ”
— Meg • Balcony Row Books
Bookseller recommendation
“ This sweeping and magnificent piece of historical fiction follows four people- Cal and Becky, Margaret and Felix- in small town Ohio, beginning during World War II and continuing on into the tumultuous time of the Vietnam War. The characters and their intertwined stories, triumphs and tragedies wound around my heart, and Patrick Ryan's melancholy and beautiful storytelling combined with Michael Crouch’s narration were perfection. I'm calling it now: this is my favorite book of 2025”
— Carolyn • Mrs. Dalloway's
Bookseller recommendation
“5/5 stars! This story and these characters will stay with me for a while. I really enjoyed how it touched on identity, family, friends, historical events, loss, and love. ”
— Tricia • Auburn Oil Co. Booksellers
Bookseller recommendation
“Loved this wonderful family saga. ”
— Sue • Cottage Book Shop
Bookseller recommendation
“Patrick Ryan's wise epic novel BUCKEYE is an astounding feat of fiction. Oh, how I wish I could start it again and become friends with these characters all over again. When Germany surrenders at the end of WW2, a man and a woman kiss, caught up in the moment, forgetting about their respective spouses and families. The novel then takes us through fifty years of children, secret loves, spiritual mediums, and history as America leaves one war and heads inevitably toward another. The writing is smart and literary in the most readable way, and I found myself reading slower in order to stretch my time with the book out longer. This is the kind of book that only comes along every decade or so and Ryan deserves all of the success he is about to receive. Sure to be one of the biggest books of the Fall, this is the book you do NOT want to miss. I loved every page.”
— Bill • An Unlikely Story
Bookseller recommendation
“Buckeye’s got an indelible cast of characters, a propelling narrative, and combines the plainspoken with the mystical, the American everyday with the implacable sweep of history, and unspeakable tragedy with hope.”
— Robert McDonald • The Book Stall
Summary
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • READ WITH JENNA BOOK CLUB PICK AS FEATURED ON TODAY • “A glorious sweep of a novel” (Ann Patchett) that weaves the intimate lives of two midwestern families across generations, from World War II to the late twentieth century.“Mesmerizing.”—People“Captivating.”—The New York Times Book Review“A once-in-a-decade novel . . . I fell in love with these characters.”—Jenna Bush HagerONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New York Times Book Review, The Washington Post, NPR, People, Minnesota Star Tribune, New York Post, Chicago Public LibraryLONGLISTED FOR THE JOYCE CAROL OATES PRIZE 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.
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Audiobook details
Author:
Patrick Ryan
Narrator:
Michael Crouch
ISBN:
9798217078660
Length:
15 hours 44 minutes
Language:
English
Publisher:
Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group
Publication date:
September 2, 2025
Edition:
Unabridged
Libro.fm rank:
#59 Overall
Genre rank:
#12 in Historical Fiction
Reviews
“[A] luminous and tender 20th-century saga of wounded souls and small-town secrets.”—The Guardian“The combination of unconventional sex lives, sardonic wit and 20th-century American history recalls the early novels of John Irving . . . Ultimately, the triumph of his book is the way it captures the nature of mistakes, both the holes dug and the bridges built.”—Financial Times
“Enhanced with a hazy sentimentality, Ryan’s quiet drama conjures moral complexities behind the facade of carefully crafted mid-century lives.”—The Washington Post
“This mesmerizing, tender novel follows two Ohio families from the 1920s through the ’60s as they find and lose love and loved ones through what one character aptly calls ‘the unraveling of time.’”—People, “Must-Read Books of Fall”
“Well-crafted and poignant . . . Buckeye draws the reader into its time and place and simply beguiles. This chronicle of leaving and loss, loving and forgiving, burns slowly and hopefully until the end.”—BookPage
“Buckeye is a thing of wonder. It’s my book of the year. I couldn’t love it more.”—Chris Whitaker, New York Times bestselling author of All the Colors of the Dark
“‘Involving’ and ‘unbelievably well-written’ are the best ways to describe Buckeye. It’s the kind of book that reads like the culmination of a writer’s career—a magnum opus of depth and care.”—Minneapolis Star Tribune
“Buckeye is epic, and it is heartfelt. . . . [It] will surely come to be regarded as one of the best novels of the year.”—The Anniston Star
“Buckeye 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.”—Richard Russo, author of Empire Falls and the North Bath trilogy
“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.”—Alice McDermott, author of Absolution
“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 la Drang Valley. Buckeye is that book, and it soars.”—Tom Hanks
“Patrick Ryan conjures a vanished America with uncanny skill and writes with deep insight and lyrical intelligence…This is a novel to settle in with, a world unto itself.”—Tom Perrotta, author of Little Children
“A deeply compassionate book . . . Patrick Ryan tells a story we very much need right now: how forgiveness might creep up—despite everything—over time, tender and elusive and ever-complex.”—Emily Fridlund, author of History of Wolves
“Patrick Ryan has created a world, and characters, that exist inside me now, and as a reader that is my deepest joy. I could not recommend this book more highly.”—Ann Napolitano, author of Hello Beautiful
“Patrick Ryan has long been one of my favorite writers. I have a feeling that with this book he’s going to be everyone's favorite writer.”—Ann Patchett
“Filled with wit and emotion on every page, this is a stirring paean to the joys and sorrows of family.”—Publishers Weekly, starred review
“[A] tale that comes across as absolutely authentic and deeply satisfying.”—Booklist, starred review Expand reviews
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