Buckeye

A family saga, a ghost story, an affair novel and a social history rolled into one ... The novel is both ambitious in scope and startlingly nimble, a story that tackles dark times with lightness and compassion

Irish Times

A poignant, powerful exploration of small-town America

Independent, BOOK OF THE MONTH

A gentle, humane family saga of quiet competence and occasional grace ... An affectionate portrait

Mail on Sunday

The world Ryan creates is complex and detailed. The people of Bonhomie are filled in with precise, economical details, and the passage of time skilfully handled … The assurance of the debut is astonishing … The quality of his writing is what really sustains the momentum. This is sweeping-family-saga stuff, but the writing is crisp and witty, with a nicely-judged balance of intimacy and distance

Irish Independent

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. There are no heroes or villains in Patrick Ryan's wonderful novel, only recognisably human creatures, each one of them drawn with refreshing honesty; each one flawed, noble, confused, passionate, lonely, loving, and, above all, real

Alice McDermott, author of ABSOLUTION

A glorious sweep of a novel, full of love and war and the perilous intimacies of small town life. It’s funny and tender, realistic and strange. Patrick Ryan has long been one of my favourite writers. I have a feeling that with this book he’s going to be everyone's favourite writer

Ann Patchett, author of THE DUTCH HOUSE and TOM LAKE

I love this novel with my entire heart. Patrick Ryan has created a world, and characters, that exist inside me now, and as a reader that is my deepest joy. Buckeye tells the story of two families across sixty years of American history; the novel is wise and heartbreaking and full of wonderful characters who struggle across decades – as we all do – to live as their whole selves. I could not recommend this book more highly

Ann Napolitano, author of HELLO BEAUTIFUL

Tender, funny, forgiving and so cleverly wrought

Saga, BOOK OF THE MONTH

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

A small-town novel of epic proportions, full of unforgettable characters and thorny human dilemmas. Patrick Ryan conjures a vanished America with uncanny skill, and writes with deep insight and lyrical intelligence about war and adultery, the mysteries of sexuality and family life, and the strange paths we have to travel to forgive – or at least begin to understand – the people who’ve hurt us the most. This is a novel to settle in with, a world unto itself

Tom Perrotta, author of THE LEFTOEVERS, ELECTION and TRACY FLICK CAN'T WIN

Patrick Ryan’s Buckeye is a deeply compassionate book, expansive in scope, yet trained with extraordinary focus on the secrets that divide and bind us. Ryan brings to life two unexpectedly overlapping families in one small Ohio town, people driven by longing and bruised by loss. In this elegant and quietly bracing novel, Ryan tells a story I very much needed right now: how forgiveness might creep up – despite everything – over time, tender and elusive and ever-complex. I was taken in by this book, utterly transported

Emily Fridlund, author of HISTORY OF WOLVES

Very occasionally, a book comes along so accomplished, so throbbing with the very essence of life, I know I will be pressing it upon people for many years to come. The last book to have had this impact upon me was Richard Powers’ The Overstory, a devastating examination of the damage humanity has inflicted upon the natural environment. Buckeye, the debut novel by Patrick Ryan, has done the same. It is an amazing achievement.

Historical Novel Society

Big-hearted, enveloping ... Richly painted, moving and told with compassion

Sainsbury's

I was swept up in the first few pages of this tender and richly told novel of marriage and family, connection and community ... A novel that has echoes of Paul Murray’s The Bee Sting. A monumental achievement

Bookseller

Luminous and tender ... Buckeye is elevated throughout by the precision with which [Ryan] captures the tiny, haunting glories of everyday suburban life ... Ryan’s characters are universally nuanced and finely wrought, their gently interpolated inner monologues giving the lie to the pleasant respectability they strive to project

Guardian

Beautifully written, Buckeye is a reminder how extraordinary “ordinary” people's life are

Newscorp

I would recommend this to someone who wants to rediscover their love of reading ... He's a fantastic storyteller. I shed a tear on the first read and just as many the second time around ... I think people will fall in love with it

ABC Radio National