Buckeye

In this heartfelt novel from Ryan (The Dream Life of Astronauts), a V-E Day kiss between two strangers reverberates across decades. In a small town in Ohio, Cal Jenkins is unable to serve in WWII because one of his legs is two inches shorter than the other. He enters a mismatched marriage with a medium named Becky Hanover, clerks in his father-in-law’s hardware store, and fathers a child, Skip. A parallel narrative follows Margaret Anderson, who’s raised in a series of foster homes before she meets and marries Felix Salt, an aluminum factory executive who volunteers for the Navy and serves on a cargo ship in the Pacific. Margaret is in Cal’s shop when they both hear the news over the radio of Germany’s surrender, prompting them to share an impulsive kiss, after which they embark on an affair. Felix returns home, and he and Margaret have a son named Tom, who becomes friends with Skip. The secrets of these enmeshed families come out years later, as Tom protests the Vietnam War and Skip enlists in the Army. The author’s vision of small-town life is as timeless as Sherwood Anderson’s or Thornton Wilder’s, and is enriched by his complex and morally conflicted characters. Filled with wit and emotion on every page, this is a stirring paean to the joys and sorrows of family. Agent: Nicole Aragi, Aragi, Inc. (Sept.)