This was a beautifully written book that explored the intersection of the Black and Jewish communities in 20th century America. McBride’s voice and tone for this piece was so reminiscent of my grandparents, both European, Yiddish speaking Jewish refugees who likewise lived in an integrated Jewish and Black enclave of Chicago experiencing many similar relationships, tensions, and complex interactions as articulated in the book. McBride truly captures this niche point of view and the content led us to really great book club discussions this past month. An emotional, complicated and brilliant five-star read.

My first McBride! I really enjoyed the setting and how he created this little world all the characters inhabited. I wish there had been a focus on fewer characters so we could've gotten to know them a bit more deeply. Or this would have made a great interconnected short story collection. Something about the plotting/pacing took me out of the story from time to time, with the various tangents to try and explain certain issues or provide context to a character's situation. If this had been a bit shorter or had more of a focus in the first 100-150 pages, I would've liked it a bit more. Still an enjoyable read that I'd recommend if you want something that's both heartwarming and hard-hitting.

After reading this wonderful book, I can see why it has won so many awards. There are an abundance of characters and plots and subplots that all weave together. Chona is the female protagonist that binds the community together. Her husband Moshe is the theater and dance hall owner. Without giving away the entire plot, let me say that is is about community, friendship, racism, and love. It is about a neighborhood in PA filled with immigrant Jews and African Americans learning to live together. And the lesson that love and community sustain us.

This book is VERY popular, unfortunately it wasn't for me. Glad it has found its audience. ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for a fair review.

One day I will learn not to listen to literary fiction. I probably took in more of this book than I thought, but I still wonder what are the threads that put McBride's books together. This seemed to be more about a collective of people rather than a narrative. Maybe someday I'll read it since I have enjoyed other McBride books that I've read, rather than listening to it.

5 stars. A new classic. This book will be around for many years, and I wouldn't be surprised if it wins many major awards. In the meantime, a wide variety of fellow readers has fallen in love with this book, and with good reason. The story hooks you from the very beginning, and its panoply of characters illustrate the rich diversity of life in 20th century America. Cannot recommend enough.

Many thanks to NetGalley and to the publisher for a digital ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review. We bought this book for our library based on how great this was!!

This book had some amazing moments in it! I loved it and hated it all at the same time! It really stirs up the emotions of the people who lived during that time period. Everyone had something to suffer from. There was a little meandering toward the middle of the books because of all the subplots and playing catch up. The best parts of the book for me were the beginning and the end. Mr. McBride was a new to me author and I think I may have to pick some books from his backlist.

I am a fan of James McBride, both of his writings and his music. His music and emotions are all over this story, and it bodes well for the reader. The story reads like a good jazz tune, lifting us up while teaching us about life. I loved his ability to soothe my soul and bring together humanity to help us connect. I highly rate this five of five strong stars.

I tried to read through this title twice and couldn’t finish it either time. I did get further the second try. enjoyed McBride’s memoir very much and was hoping to enjoy this title too. The many characters were hard to remember which didn't allow for a connection and lost interest. Thanks to Netgalley for the reading opportunity.

The author has a great ear for dialogue and creates dialects that make the characters come alive. I cared about many of the characters in this book, but there were just too many of them. It was almost as though he wrote a few short stories about interconnected people then scrambled them together.

The setting was well done and I found the interactions between characters and their perceptions of each other interesting. The writing was very good. It was just too much at once, almost like it was a great first draft.

The interesting time and place, as well as excellent dialogue, make me want to read more from the author.

I read most of this in audio and the narrator was excellent.

Thank you LibroFM and NetGalley for ARCs in exchange for an honest review. I purchased a copy for my library.

I can't say anything different than what has already been said about this title--enjoyable, well researched, and beautiful prose.

A story that intertwines different cultures and communities. The strength of the book is how it shows rather than tells us about similarities that run through different communities.

I received a free ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I’m not sure how I feel about this book. I liked the idea, loved that it was set in PA and the quirky characters. That being said, I found it very hard to follow. There were just so many characters to keep track of that I often forgot who they were or how they were related to the story.

This is clearly a gorgeous book, but it left me searching for an anchor to cling onto. While I felt a strong knowingness of the characters and communities that McBride painted, I was left wanting for a particular relatability that drew me deeply into the story. I appreciate that this is not McBride’s driving ambition and his masterful writing was enough to keep me coming back nonetheless.

During the reading of this book I did not care for it. I struggled to sort out the characters and see where they fit into the overall plot. After finishing it, some of those characters are still rolling around in my mind. Set in the 1920s and 30s, the neighborhood of Chicken Hill is mixed race, Black, Italians, and others who are living on the fringes of society. Chona, a handicapped women who never let her handicaps govern her life, runs a small grocery store which is the heart of the community. The book read (to me, at least) as more a series of short stories or vignettes, which finally come together into a somewhat cohesive story. The neighborhood seems to be preyed upon by everyone else living outside of the community.

The community comes together to help save a hearing-impaired, non-vocal boy who the "authorities" are determined to place in an institution. In their attempts to get the boy out of the community, some terrible things happen.

In 1972 the remains of a body is found in the well which provided the whole neighborhood with water. How did the body get into the well and how does that body tie in to the events of the 1930s?

I'm a big fan of James McBride, but this one unfortunately just didn't work for me. It felt too much like it was trying to tell the story in a cinematic/TV series format instead of a book. So many characters, so dialogue-heavy, making it hard to follow. I'll be back for more McBride in the future, and I'm glad so many other readers have connected with this.

McBride is back with an amazing story of a neighborhood composed of recent transplants who come together to guard a secret. The story is centered around Chona, diabled from a childhood bout of polio, who inherits her rabbi father’s neighborhood grocery store. She meets and marries Moshe, a music loving jazz fan, who starts a unique club that appeals to both whites and blacks.

The story is full of a number of complex characters vibrantly portrayed by the author. The black community in the neighborhood moves to Pennsylvania hoping to escape the bigotry of the South. The Jewish community has arrived from Eastern Europe hoping for a better life in America. Together they try to forge a life in the predominantly Christain White community of Pottsville. When workers discover a skeleton in a well while digging on a construction site, long held town secrets come to light and impact each of these groups.

McBride has created a neighborhood where different worlds collide and the residents learn from each other. A novel that is a heartwarming, moving and sometimes sad celebration of the uniqueness in individuals and the hope of kindness. A complex plot and multifaceted characters inside of a quick read with an important message. McBride weaves together history and culture finto a beautifully written novel. Definitely a must read for fans of Brit Bennett’s The Vanishing Half or Catherine Adel West’s The Two Lives of Sara.

Thank you to Netgalley and the Publisher for this Advanced Reader's Copy of The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride. An absolutely enthralling read, I did not want my time with this community to end!

I did not know what to expect from The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, but what I got was far more than I could possibly have anticipated. This James McBride novel is filled with characters, conversations, and the complexity of lives thrust together in an impoverished neighborhood in Pottstown, PA in the 1920s-30s. This dual timeline novel begins in the 1970s, with a bit of a mystery, but the novel is really about a group of Black and Jewish neighbors, who find that their lives will be made easier if they depend on one another.

The Chicken Hill neighborhood is defined by poverty and struggle. The Heaven & Earth Grocery is not just where neighbors congregate, it is where they survive. This grocery, owned by Chona and Moshe, is a haven of free credit, with the goal of feeding those who need help. Chona, who is determined to live her Jewish beliefs, practices tikkun olam, the Jewish effort to repair the world, beginning with one's neighbors. The racism and discrimination that define Black lives and the antisemitism that Jewish immigrants faced helped to characterize the Chicken Hill neighborhood.

The characters in The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store are complex and multifaceted, as is the plot. Like a Dickens novel, McBride creates characters whose experiences and conversations all seem unique, until the author brings them together. In reality, as differences fall away, each individual understands what community and neighborhood really mean. The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store is beautifully written and crafted. This novel is not a quick read, and with every reading, more of the novel is unwrapped and understood. The skeleton that opens the novel is only a device to explore the lives of outsiders. By the end of the novel, readers understand how the skeleton and the characters in this neighborhood were connected. These are people, whose struggle to survive means a willingness to depend on one another, which in turn will help themselves and their neighbors.

Thank you to author and publisher and NetGalley for making this ARC available for me to read and review. I do recommend this novel, which will demand much from readers.

Beautifully written / sad and optimistic / truly wonderful - I started the book and couldn't put it down. Everyone I've hand sold the book to loved it.