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 Hager ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New York
Times Book Review The Washington Post NPR People Minnesota Star Tribune Chicago Public
Library LONGLISTED 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.
