Buckeye

Bonhomie, Ohio, in the celebrations that follow the Allied victory in Europe. Cal Jenkins could not serve in the war, and that lack has left him wounded in a quieter way. In the exuberant mood of the moment he shares a stolen encounter with Margaret Salt, who is trying to keep her past out of view.

Both are married. Cal's wife, Becky, is a seer who calls up the dead so that families can reach the people they have lost. Margaret's husband, Felix, works aboard a Navy cargo ship, far from the fighting, until a telegram hints at the worst.

The story then moves through the postwar boom and on across several decades of American change. A secret takes root in Bonhomie, and a small town is a poor place to bury anything for good.

This is historical fiction about two families over time, with a touch of the supernatural in Becky's gift. The effects of that one encounter pass to the children of both households, who are pushed to question who they believed they were and what lies ahead for them. The slow-burning secret sits at the center of it.