1st September, 7.30pm - Patrick Ryan, Buckeye

Backstory, 71 Balham High Rd, SW12 9AP

We are thrilled that Patrick Ryan, author of Buckeye, Backstory's Book of the Year in 2025, is joining us on the day of its paperback publication.  Buckeye is Patrick's debut novel, he's a former associate editor of Granta and is now editor-in-chief of the literary magazine One Story. 

About the book:

May, 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.

‘Wise and heart-breaking 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

‘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

Tickets Available:

Ticket only - £15 (This ticket does not include a copy of the book. You can decide to buy a copy on the night, but this will be charged in addition, at the full price of the book.)

Ticket & book  (RRP £10.99)- £21 (To collect on the night.)