I was initially drawn to this book because it take place in Pottstown, PA which is very close to where I live. I had never read anything by this author so I had no idea what to expect. What an amazing storyteller James McBride is! I was hooked from the very first page. The story itself is incredible and the characters he introduces the reader to are so well developed and unforgettable. He does get a bit wordy with some of his descriptions but overall this is an amazing story that I will recommend to many!
Special thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an advanced readers copy in exchange for an honest review.

My goodness! James McBride's way of storytelling certainly is mesmerizing! In "The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store", he populates his tales with characters, the likes of which we have never seen before. Once you start this novel you can barely tear your eyes away; wanting to know more; wanting to know what happens next.

What started as a mystery veers into something else entirely and it is remarkable in its depth and breadth. Taking place in 1930's Pennsylvania, the novel deals with bigotry and racism, physical disabilities, and incarceration of those who are mentally ill or even perceived to be so.

I'm sorry to say this is the first book by Mr. McBride I've ever read, but it surely won't be my last. "The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store", is a treat and I highly recommend it.

Such a unique and well- told story. At first, it seemed an overwhelming cast of characters, but loved how they all came together for the common goal.

This is a beautiful book about community and what people do to survive. The characters are captivating. It's also an interesting historical novel.

This novel is set in the 1930's, in a small town in Pennsylvania. Jews, African Americans, European immigrants and supposed Mayflower descendants, living side-by-side sharing joys, sorrows and everything else life has dealt them. This is a wonderful, powerful, brilliant historical fiction. I cried, I rejoiced, I was spellbound and enthralled. Highly recommend.

Vividly generous characters are revealed with heart, humor, community, and an intimate sense of place. Know and love the "Chicken Hill" neighbors of immigrant Jews and African Americans in Pottstown, Pennsylvania!

“The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store,” by James McBride, Riverhead Books, 400 pages, Aug. 8, 2023.

In 1972, workers in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, are digging the foundations for a new development. They find a skeleton at the bottom of a well. Pennsylvania State Police go to the Chicken Hill home of Malachi, an elderly Jewish man, to ask about a metal item that was found.

He tells them it is a mezuzah that would have been hung above a door. They already know that the wording says it is the home of the greatest dancer in the world. Malachi was a dancer. The troopers say they will be back, but the state is hit by Hurricane Agnes the next day.

When the troopers finally return, Malachi is gone. Who the skeleton was and how it got there were two of the long-held secrets kept by the residents of Chicken Hill, the dilapidated neighborhood where immigrant Jews and Blacks lived side by side in the 1930s.

Moshe and Chona Ludlow live on Chicken Hill. Moshe integrated his theater and Chona runs the Heaven & Earth Grocery Store. Although most of the Jews moved off the hill to the downtown, the Ludlows stayed.

When the state comes looking for a deaf 12-year-old boy, nicknamed Dodo, to institutionalize him, it is Chona Ludlow and Nate Timblin, the Black janitor at Moshe’s theater, who work together to keep the boy safe. Nate is Dodo’s uncle. And when Dodo is finally taken away to Pennhurst Hospital, a plot is formed to get him out.

This is a well-plotted historical novel with excellent characters who demonstrate the good, and the bad, of a community. I got so wrapped up in the effort to rescue Dodo that I forgot that a skeleton had been found. The story accelerates to an amazing climax and a deeply moving ending.

In accordance with FTC guidelines, the advance reader's edition of this book was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for a review.

A beautiful, sad epic novel about the struggles of Jewish Americans and African Americans during the history of America.

I had high hopes for this book as I had enjoyed James McBride's previous book (a memoir). This one did not capture my interest, unfortunately and I was disappointed. Slow moving.

Moving, thoughtful tale of Jews and African Americans struggling to co-exist and survive in Pottstown, PA in the 30s. Amazing descriptions, characters and language - McBride is a master at weaving a story.

An absolutely riveting read. McBride’s masterful way of weaving this tale at breakneck speed simply compelled me to never put the book down for long. Each diverse character is as compelling as the last one, and it makes for a rich American tapestry.

Thank you to Riverhead Publishing and NetGalley for the early copy of this book, releasing on August 8th, 2023x

I am very faithful to James McBride, and I have a season pass for everything he writes. Will read all his books from now until forever! All of his books have wonderful characters with incredible details and this book was no exception. This book was extremely unique…McBride builds the Chicken Hill community, a community with both Jewish immigrants and African Americans living side by side with their shared secrets and mutual care for each other. At the core, this book is about the resiliency of community and love despite differences, and this theme is intertwined throughout each character’s presence in the book.

What do you get when you mix a Jewish theatre, an impoverished Black community, and an unchecked evil?

Well, you get a hurricane. And a well.

There is a lot of darkness in this book, caused by the evil that white privilege spawns.

But there is also hope.
Hope that we may not be doomed to repeat the past.
Hope that community may stand up for the downtrodden.
Hope that people will overcome.
Hope that justice may be done, and the circle be unbroken.

Chicken Hill is a real place. A bastian of inclusivity and acceptance, that disappeared in the annals of history, and somehow brought to life in this book. The author's note says it was diverse "before the word diversity echoed around America."

If you are a fan of historical fiction, this book should be at the top of your to-read list.

"Don't ask for the devil to show up, Soap."
"What are we waiting for?"
"Waiting for the future, Soap, waiting for the future."

Thanks to NetGalley for the digital ARC
What a great story that you definitely do not want to end. I was so immersed in the Pottstown PA community that it comes alive jumping from the page into your very being. McBride succeeded in rendering these two communities with such justice to both. McBride is a master storyteller and this is a must read novel that is hard to put down.

The black and Jewish residents of Chicken Hill help each other survive in the decades before WWII. Their lives and struggles overlap as McBride reveals more and more about each character, until their lots are thrown together fully by an attack from the white establishment that leaves a Jewish woman dead and a black boy in danger.

James McBride is becoming one of my favorite authors. I love the way each chapter is a self-contained story and how the plot just sort of reveals itself by stacking stories on top of one another. The way that you almost forget about the body that's discovered in the well in the beginning of the book, until it comes back around at the end. This books is fantastic, and I'll be recommending it.

Racism and anti-semitism, the division of American society, and a mysterious skeleton found in a well decades later make up an engaging story. The multiple characters are well developed and the writing is beautiful.

A compulsively readable tale, populated with vivid and engaging characters, that poignantly illustrates the tension in American society (and not just in the past). Two families of different backgrounds are inextricably linked as the mystery of a skeleton in a well is unraveled. A compelling narrative that touches on racial prejudice and mistreatment of the disabled.

In 1972, after the ravages of Hurricane Agnes, the authorities find a skeleton in a well, wearing the remains of a red coat and clutching a mezuzah. So begins “The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store”, a beautifully written story of the Chicken Hill area of Pottstown, PA in the mid-1930s. Chicken Hill is inhabited by Blacks, Jews, and Italians, whose lives are interwoven as they live on the margins of the staid, seemingly respectable Pottstown where the KKK marches in the annual parades and corruption is right below the surface. Alternately funny, tragic, and heartbreaking, the stories of Chona, Moshe, Dodo, Nate and Addie are rich with history and carry echoes through to today. James McBride is a master. Highly recommend.

1n 1972 a mysterious skeleton , along with a Jewish pendant is found at the bottom of a well on Chicken Hill in Pottstown, PA.

40 years earlier the residents of Chicken Hill came together to hide and protect an orphaned deaf boy the state was looking to institutionalize.

Full of unforgettable characters, humor, grace… and delicious karma.

What I think McBride does so perfectly is show us the beauty that exists in humanity and community, without ever closing our eyes to its cruelly and injustice. I loved every sentence!

The Heaven & Earth Grocery store has never turned a monetary profit but that doesn't matter to Chona, a handicapped Jewish wife who cares for and feeds her local community, be they white, black, Jewish or poor. At a time when women were supposed to "keep house" and keep quiet, Chona educates herself on history, politics, the law, and the Talmud. She speaks out in her letters to the local newspaper and identifies a local KKK leader as the town's doctor. As various characters from "Chicken Hill", (the neighborhood where the poor live) interact with Chona, readers are introduced to the prejudiced world which she and her neighbors inhabit. Weaving each family's stories into the fabric of the narrative, McBride provides us with a richly satisfying tale. A tale that will leave readers deeply satisfied for having known these unique characters and the woman who accepted and loved them all.