Opening with the discovery of a body in 1972, the novel quickly goes back in time to the 1930's in a Pennsylvania neighborhood inhabited by African-Americans and immigrant Jews. The main characters are Moshe, owner of an integrated theater, and his wife Chona, who insists on keeping their unprofitable grocery store open. Their employees and friends Nate and Addie ask them to take in a disabled missing boy who is being chased down by officials who want to place him in an institute for the insane. The prejudices and wrong-headedness provoked in this situation are all too relevant today. The descriptions of the Pennhurst Hospital, based on its factual history, are all too horrific. The resolution is most satisfying, and circles back to the mystery of the body found decades later.

This book is one of my favorites that I’ve read all year. I loved how each character in the community was so fully rendered, and I loved how suspenseful it became toward the ending. McBride has shown America itself with this story, and I can’t stop thinking about it. It’s the next Great American Novel, as far as I’m concerned.

Set in the 1930's, residents of Chicken Hill come together to save a young boy from being institutionalized. Chicken Hill's community is largely made up of immigrant Jews and African Americans and even though everyone has their own struggles, they help each other out when they can. Chona and Moshe own a grocery store that helps provide credit to anyone who needs it and Chona doesn't turn anyone away. Dodo lost his hearing in an accident and when his mother dies, Chona takes him in and tries to protect him from being taken away and sent to the asylum. But after an altercation with the local doctor, Dodo is accused of attacking him and taken to the institution. The community then works out a plan to rescue him without bringing more trouble on any of the residents. Overall, a gripping story about a small town with many secrets where the residents try to do the right thing by a young boy despite the bigotry and hypocrisy of some of their neighbors.

Heaven and Earth Grocery Store has already earned much acclaim. It is a story of community and how people of minorities are treated in white Christian America. When Pottstown, Pennsylvania is being torn down to make room for a new development a body is uncovered. The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store is the story of who the body is and how it ended up there. Read this book! You'll be drawn in immediately. This a book made for book clubs as well. Many thanks to Net Galley for the chance to read the ARC.

This book was another work of art produced by James McBride. Set in the 1930s, we follow a Jewish immigrant theater owner as he chases the American dream with his headstrong wife that sees the worth in all people. When the Jewess decides to help the Negros in town hide a boy, the story takes on a rollercoaster ride of schemes and dirty dealing. This novel embodied what it means to be an immigrant in America through so many lenses. Race relations are tackled honestly and boldly. I enjoyed every twist and turn in this complicated tapestry of 1930s America. This story will be with me for years to come.

James McBride is a master! This book begins in 1972 after the damage of Hurricane Irene uncovers a skeleton in a well and a mizusah. Back in time to the 1930s in Pottstown, Pennsylvania where we meet Chona, her husband Moshe and the Black residents of Chicken Hill. Chona and Moshe are the last of the Jewish families left there. Chona runs the grocery store-which never makes money because she will never deny food to anyone without money. Chona has grown up there and her father founded and built the shul with his Black neighbor, Shad. Chona and Moshe's lives are interwoven with their Black neighbors and friends. Chona is a character with deep moral principles who cannot let injustice go by without challenging it. A wonderful book

This story of a neighborhood called Chicken Hill, where Black, Jewish, and immigrants live and work together, is (in my opinion) McBride's best work yet. The narrative is just brilliant, each chapter serving almost as a vignette that McBride connects to the rest of the story and other characters in remarkable ways. It's tender and suspenseful, heartbreaking and hopeful, and at times laugh out loud funny. The ending is completely satisfying and brings the whole story full circle in such a beautiful way that I didn't even mind that I saw it coming. I love it and highly recommend it.
I was given a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Wow. Pottstown, Pennsylvania in the 1930's. Jewish immigrants trying to start new lives. Black families trying to survive. Their lives intermingle on Chicken Hill, especially when it comes to Dodo, a Black boy who is deaf.

James McBride is one of those authors that will never write the same. He pushes the boundries to make you feel uncomfortable but does it in a way that make you at a subject in a new way and actually learn from the experience. The Heavan & Earth Grocery Store is no exception. It has an incredible cast of characters that keep you turning the pages. The main characters are Moshe and Chona who own the Heaven & Earth Grocery store in Chicken Hill which is in a black neighborhood. Nate and Doc are some of the other characters who play a major part of the story. From page one to the final page these townspeople whether good or bad are ones that you truly care about and learn what happens to them. I hope there is some sort of sequel because it really holds your interest and you never really want it to end. I'm sure this book will end up on many "best of year lists" and it is well deserved. Thank you to Riverhead Books and netgalley for the read. I will be recommending this book to my socials as well as a book club selection. There is plenty to discuss and it's not always going to be comfortable but that is what makes this book so exciting.

The sound and fury, dazzle and snap, humor and exuberance, warmth and rage of James McBride’s writing is a wonder to behold. And his newest book, The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, should be included on any literary gratitude list for this year. It follows the Jim Crow-era inhabitants of Chicken Hill, in Pottstown, Pennsylvania: the immigrant Jews, mostly from Eastern Europe, the African American community that has been there for years, and the neighborhoods around it with individuals who range from active racists to white Christians of many stripes, though almost all are uncomfortable with neighborhoods that seed and grow and change.
At the core of this neighborhood is disabled Chona Ludlow who runs the Heaven & Earth grocery store, which could also be called the Heart and Empathy store, for Chona’s generosity extends to all, and her husband, Moshe Ludlow, who opened the first integrated theater in the area. Also central to the social fabric of Chicken Hill are the black inhabitants, especially the quietly powerful Nate Timblin, who works for Moshe, and his wife Addie, who does the same for Chona at the store. But this is just the outer layer of a character-rich chronicle that encompasses a very specific society’s social and racial inequities and changes, along with numerous story lines including a mystery body at the bottom of a well, a community coverup of a missing child, a trail of graft writ large and small, and the small feuds and injustices neighbors enact on each other, even as they have each other’s backs. McBride shares a full hand of fully realized characters and plot lines that braid in and out and through each other with perfect syncopation, and dialogue that is abundant yet concise, mordantly funny, heart-breaking, and revelatory. It all comes together with a virtuoso edge-of-your-seat conclusion that has the feel of the people and place pulsing vitality of a Diego Rivera mural. Highly recommended for those who breath air.

The Heaven & Earth Grocery Stere by James McBride is simply one of the best books I've ever read. The story itself is exceptionally well crafted, but the characters are what drive this tale. McBride has an amazing talent for creating unforgettable characters with simply delightful names like Fatty, Big Soap, Paper, DoDo, Chona, Moshe, and Monkey Pants, as well as writing dialogue that jumps right off the page at you. I was so invested in these characters that I didn't want the book to end. McBride deftly navigates and illustrates the systemic racism of the United States in the 1930s, painting a tragic picture of how little has changed in so many ways. The multi-faceted relationships among the black, white, and Jewish characters were absolutely fascinating, and the various connections and simmering tensions among each individual racial group was just as complex and realistic. One thing I loved about this storyline and setting was that while the world events leading up to World War II linger in the backdrop, they do not dominate the story; the relationships of these amazing, ordinary characters are always front and center while the various plotlines are played out and finally come together to solve the mystery which begins the tale. This book is an absolute gem and a reminder of the storytelling genius that is James McBride.

Like Deacon King Kong, The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store is an immersive story of character and community. It provides an insightful look at the Jim Crow era, considering effects on both the Black and Jewish communities. It is compassionate storytelling, and beautifully written. However, I will admit that the depth of the depictions (often involving tangents, deep backstory character dives, long conversations) was occasionally a bit of a slog for me. However, I think this is more of a "me" thing than anything else, as I felt the same way about Deacon King Kong.

James McBride is such an excellent storyteller and his stories feel true and human. There is such wisdom in his unvarnished observations about Americans and American life, particularly in this case, the immigrant experience. He is also laugh-out-loud funny. His books should be taught in high school.

Chicken Hill is on the wrong side of the tracks in Pottstown PA. When a skeleton is found at the bottom of a well, there is a lot of consternation from all the citizens. Chicken Hill is where Moshe and Chona Ludlow had their variety hall and grocery store. Moshe booked all the big Jewish and African-American acts. Klezmer music and hot jazz. Everyone knew Chona who ran the grocery store and gave everyone credit if it was needed. Moshe and Chona employed many of the Black folks on Chicken Hill. This book is a glimpse into the Jim Crow era and its impact, not just on Blacks, but on Jewish immigrants as well. Woven into the seams of life in Pennsylvania, the reader sees the depth of compassion and thoughtlessness that made the life of every marginalized person a living hell. Recommended for its deeply personal person and meditations on relationships.

In the 1930s, the residents of Chicken Hill, an impoverished, mixed-race neighborhood in the small Pennsylvania city of Pottstown, are doing their level best to get by. The common denominator connecting the largely Black and Jewish population of the district is that they are all dirt-poor and subject to unending insults and indignities from the entitled (and largely racist) White population who run the town. But that shared experience is more than enough to turn the denizens of Chicken Hill into a tightknit, if somewhat fractious, community who watch out for one another and act as an extended family. Chona and Moshe Ludlow, who run the local grocery store of the book’s title more as a charity than as a business, serve as the group’s heart and soul, with plenty of help from their neighbors Nate and Adele Timblin.

While that description summarizes the essential nature of The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, it does not come close to conveying the myriad joys and surprises that this novel has in store for the reader. As he has done in much of his previous work—most notably, Deacon King Kong and The Good Lord Bird--author James McBride once again explores the theme of a multi-racial, multi-ethnic, and multi-generational neighborhood coalescing for both a greater purpose as well as for its daily survival. McBride is a gifted story-teller and the mystery underlying this particular tale—which involves the discovery many years later of a long-hidden skeleton and the attempt to rescue Dodo, a disabled child who has been wrongly placed in a detention facility masquerading as a school—is developed with equal amounts of humor and insight into just what it is that drives human behavior.

This was a very satisfying book to read, which is hardly surprising coming from one the very best novelists that we have working today. The compassion that the author has for all his characters—the protagonists, anyway—is affective and compelling, making it very easy for the reader to care about them as well. Still, this was far from a perfect novel; it was probably about 50-75 pages longer than it needed to be to set up the dramatic tension in the story and the resolution, much of which occurs in a rather terse epilogue, was disappointingly abrupt by contrast. Nevertheless, The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store is another big-hearted, entertaining effort from a consistently talented writer and a pleasure to recommend without reservation.

AHHHH! I am living for this gorgeous piece of fiction that has transported me back in time to a wonderfully diversified neighborhood in NYC in the 70s, where people from all cultures and backgrounds cohabitate in the same block and encounter a world of situations unlike any other.

I am so thankful to PRH Audio, James McBride, Riverhead Books, and Netgalley for granting me advanced audio and digital access before this baby is set to publish on August 8, 2023.

From the author of The Good Lord Bird, another great read with unexpected prose. 4 1/2 🌟s! Set in Pottsville, PA in an area called “Chicken Hill” where Blacks and Jewish immigrants live side by side. With intertwining stories of envy, love, hate, obsession and ultimately death, some of which is righteous and some not. Well written as is expected from McBride with excellent character development.

Historically rich and packed with memorable characters. This is the kind of novel that feels larger in scope than its size lets on. By the end, the setting and its people have become so familiar, it feels like you've read an entire series of books about them.

Mostly set in the 1930s, it opens with the discovery of a skeleton down a well in the 1970s, right before a hurricane comes in and destroys everything, including the evidence. It follows the intertwined lives of the Black and Jewish residents of Chicken Hill, in Pottstown, PA as they open businesses, marry and have children, and work and live alongside one another.
This book has an extensive cast of characters, but McBride makes each of them stand out for the reader in such a way that you don't forget who they are or mix them up, which so often happens in large cast novels. While the novel focuses primarily on Moshe and Chona, the Jewish owners of the grocery store and two integrated theaters, Addie and Nate Timblin, their Black employees, and their nephew Dodo, the novel is populated by a rich cast of characters that bring different perspectives to the events unfolding in Chicken Hill. This is a story of community, friendship, love, as well as anger and hate. It examines how poor immigrants and Blacks are oppressed by wealthier, whiter community members, and how they come together as a community to help one another in times of need. I enjoyed the multiple perspectives and interesting characters, as well as how McBride wove their lives and stories together into one narrative, incorporating humor alongside the tragic, and giving readers a satisfying end to Chicken Hill and its residents.

Thank you to Riverhead Books and NetGalley for the opportunity to read The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store early in exchange for a review.

This was my first novel by James McBride, and I was very happy with it. I loved the interactions between the Jewish characters and the Black neighborhood, I loved seeing how community pulled together to help a young boy, and I liked the ending. I thought the author did a great job with his characterizations and with showing the interweaving of the people into a web that supported the story and ending.