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.

4.5*
The novel takes place in 1972 Pottstown, a small town in Pennsylvania. It centers on a community of Jewish and Black families that live on the outskirts of the town, on Chicken Hill. The wealthier, mostly white residents, live within the town itself.

Chona and her husband Moshe Ludlow own a grocery store and a music hall. They serve all the residents of Chicken Hill and get along with all their neighbors. But life for the residents of Chicken Hill is complicated and McBride tells of the difficulties the people have with simple things like access to water and more importantly, dealing with racial barriers.

Like Dickens, McBride introduces his story by opening doors to the varied stories of his characters. Each character brings a new element to the plot and these threads are knit together into a novel that reveals the wonder of the human spirit and the graciousness of simple acts of kindness amidst the cruelty of the world. Each story unfolds and is tied into the narrative that touches the heart of the reader.

Those looking for a straightforward plot full of action will be disappointed. This is a novel that is rich in description, in character, in the evolution of the interconnectedness of the threads that make up the plot. It is a novel to savor and to celebrate for the writing and the humanity.

This historical fiction is everything the world of books was missing. A stunning creation, this book will have a lasting impact for years to come.

In James McBride's evocative novel, the unearthing of a skeleton in the foundations of a new development in 1972 shatters the seemingly placid surface of Pottstown. "The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store" plunges readers into Chicken Hill, a neglected neighborhood where immigrant Jews and African Americans coexist amid shared aspirations and hidden burdens.

McBride weaves a tapestry of interconnected lives, unraveling the mysteries and secrets held by the community. As the narratives entwine, the struggles of those on society's fringes are laid bare, portraying the resilience and sacrifices required for survival. The author skillfully portrays the convergence of diverse lives, highlighting the tenacity and fortitude of those navigating hardship and adversity.

Through the revelations of Chicken Hill's buried past and the complicity of the town's white establishment, McBride deftly explores themes of societal injustice and the enduring power of love and community. In the darkness of their circumstances, the novel beautifully underscores the resilience found in bonds forged through adversity.

"The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store" is a poignant testament to McBride's storytelling prowess, a narrative that deftly captures the human spirit's resilience amidst hardship. McBride's poignant depiction of love, solidarity, and the endurance of marginalized communities resonates profoundly, painting a vivid portrait of the complex tapestry of human existence.

I just reviewed The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride. #TheHeavenEarthGroceryStore #NetGalley

For this to be my introduction to James McBride, I am thoroughly pleased. I really enjoyed his writing throughout this entire story. I loved that this was a story of family and community, music and love all rolled up into a historical fiction. I must admit, I picked this book up because I know where Pottstown, Pennsylvania is and the name Chicken Hill intrigued me. I appreciated McBride's exploration of community resilience and the evolving definition of family between Black and Jewish Americans in the 1930s.

My only issue is that there were too many characters for me to completely understand what was happening. The vast amount of characters also didn't allow me to really root for them because I had quickly moved on to another character and their interesting story.

I cannot believe it took me so long to pick up this book. Richly detailed, full of marvelously developed characters, and wonderfully plotted this is one of those books that you don't, as a reader, want to end. McBride is able to weave together a tale that incorporates history and culture into a complex beautifully written book. This is most likely the best book I have read this year.

Brilliant is an applicable description of this book.
To attempt to explain this brilliant story will not do it justice. When a man's remains are found in PA, in 1972, the mystery begins.
The neighborhood of Chicken Hill, which included African Americans and Jews who had migrated from different parts of the work living side by side, is greatly impacted when the story begins. Yet, this brief summary does not begin to describe the struggles, ambitions, love and loss exhibited by the main and supporting characters in this community. As the story progresses, the characters come alive. Survival is key and the means to keep that survival moving forward is tested, and, ultimately, triumphant.
The author's writing skill gave me the pleasure of feeling so invested in the story's outcome and was overwhelming. I regretted when the book ended, which, is the sign of a superb accomplishment.

Amazing! The writing is beautiful, the characters unique and wonderfully crafted, and the story immediately grabbed my attention and carried me along.

I have enjoyed all of McBride's previous books, so I went into reading The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store with great enthusiasm. Sadly, I didn't enjoy this book as much as his previous works. I felt as though there were too many subplots for me to follow, and that these took away from Dodo's story (which I very much wanted to finish). Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advanced e-reader copy.

Poignant, touching, heartfelt, and FUNNY, this book is signature McBride and the book I needed this year. The warmth he brings to this community is unlike anything I've ever read, and every single character felt real to me. One of my favorite books of the year by far!