Buckeye : The novel everyone will be talking about this autumn: ‘It soars’ Tom Hanks by Ryan, Patrick

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A WATERSTONES BEST BOOK OF SEPTEMBER 2025One town. Two families. A secret that changes everything.

‘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 NAPOLITANOMay, 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.