I loved this book and could not put it down. A great novel that provides insight into 3 different cultures and does an excellent job- -African American, Jewish community - -Italians- -and how their experiences differ and how much we are alike. A compelling read as it chronicles how these 3 groups are interconnected and share the same struggles and triumphs.

This is a historical novel about Chicken Hill where Jews and African Americans came together as neighbors to find their way.
This is a good story of history and shows what many cultures have had to go through just to survive.

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC.

The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store is an enlightening novel that encompasses the lines of ethnicity, religion, politics, and health during the 1930's, while prejudice is rampant, especially against anyone who is not white and Jewish and disabled. The Southern twist to the writing is fantastic for us Southerners. The background 'stories' of all the characters are somewhat lengthy.

James McBride has a talent for crafting large groups of memorable, fully realized characters, and then weaving them all together into a beautifully (and also at times tragically) intricate web, all with keeping their vivid individuality intact. Said talent is once again on full roaring display here in “The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store.” Here, McBride’s latest cast anchors a tale that is as intensely heart wrenching at some times as it is soul-warming in others. Their story is simultaneously one of their own community and time in pre-WWII Pottstown, Pennsylvania, and a story that’s all-too-timelessly American with its themes of the marginalized striving to live in a land built upon a foundation of catering to the white Christian (and quite often a male one, to boot).

To be a bit cliched, my main qualm is that I’ve already finished it, and now have no choice but to wait indefinitely for McBride’s next work. But in the meantime, I’ll be happy to endorse it to anyone on the lookout for a high quality historical fiction read.

In the early 20th century, Black and Jewish residents of a poor neighborhood rally together when a deaf boy is institutionalized after an incident with a white doctor at the local grocery store.

This is a powerful novel of injustice in America, dealing with race, religion, and disability. I enjoyed the portrayal of the diverse immigrant Jewish community and the parallels of their experiences with those of African Americans.

But if I’m honest I found the book heavy going overall. While the many characters and their backstories gave depth to the story, the tangents, excessive detail, and overlong conversations made for a tedious read. I also felt that the messaging was overdone at times, particularly with the “flashforwards” to our current era and its issues.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the review copy.

Chicken Hill is a dilapidated residential area in Pottstown, Pennsylvania where immigrant Jews and African-Americans lived. In the early 1970s, workers were excavating in advance of building a new development, and were startled to find a skeleton. No one seems to know who it is or how it got there.

A couple named Moshe and Chona Ludlow lived in the area back in the day, and she ran the Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, while he was busy integrating his theater. Representatives of the state were thwarted by their efforts to remove and institutionalize a deaf boy by Chona and Nate Timblin, the janitor at Moshe’s theater and the unofficial leader of the African-American community in the area.

As I read the stories of these characters, the big impact on me was how much the people in the Chicken Hill area (like all those who live outside the mainstream of white Christian America) had to struggle just to survive. As the story of what happened in Chicken Hill emerges, a picture of a community that has found the strength inherent in a close-knit group grows more and more vivid.

McBride is known for his compassionate storytelling, evidenced by his Oprah’s Book Club pick Deacon King Kong and the National Book Award–winning The Good Lord Bird. I’ve been feeling discouraged by the lack of progress in reducing (and hopefully, one day eliminating) racism in this country. Events like what happened in this story are horrifying, and I personally didn’t come away from this book feeling positive about humanity in general or white Christian America in particular. But it is beautifully written, and I appreciate Penguin Group/Riverhead and NetGalley for providing a copy of The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store in exchange for this honest review. Four stars.

This is a beautiful book that I could not put down. I loved the story about how Jewish people and Black people come together to make up a community that takes care of its own people.I absolutely loved how they come together in the story to expose what's wrong in the world and to help a a child who is in need.
Thanks to the publisher and netgalley for the ARC in exchange for my review.

I received an ARC of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

A beautiful novel with an even more beautiful tribute at the end.

James McBride's latest book is about being a good neighbor.

Blacks relocated from the South and Jewish immigrants fleeing Europe live side by side in the 1930s on Chicken Hill, a slum that Pottstown, PA, residents, deserted in favor of potable water and a sewer system. As squalid as the conditions, Chicken Hill residents feel fortunate to be where they are.

Chona, who runs Heaven & Earth Grocery, extends credit to everyone. Born in America, stricken with polio and the daughter of a rabbi, she refuses to move down the hill. Her husband has her love but not her courage in the face of prejudice.

The couple agrees to protect the young deaf nephew of the black couple that works for them when the government decides the child should be in an institution. Chicken Hill aids in the deception and abets in the plan to retrieve the child.

McBride paints detailed portraits of the characters, shading with comedy and tragedy. This book will stay with the reader long after the epilogue.

There’s an inherent tension in this novel, between the sweet/sentimental side of its portrait of Jewish and Black communities in pre-WWII Pennsylvania, and the less charming topics of racism and poverty which underpin it. McBride, a talented writer from the outset, manages to sit on the razor’s edge and deliver a satisfying, warm-hearted community portrait that doesn’t shy away from violence, hatred and oppression.
Is it as good as his debut? I don’t think so. There’s less originality of form here, but the character portraits, the intricacy, the humor and balance between light and dark are nevertheless to be relished.
Good stuff.

This story is about what life is like for those who live outside of the white, Christians who run a small town.

When digging the foundations of a new development a skeleton is discovered. In the search to discover what happened, the story of life for both Blacks and Jews in this prejudiced town emerge and overlap.

Another winner from McBride

Heaven and Earth Grocery Store
In the 1930s new people were arriving in Pottstown, PA. Blacks, Jews and other immigrants were moving to the area and some of the locals were not happy. Moshe,@ young Jew, met and married Chona, the daughter of the rabbi of a small shul on Chicken Hill. Moshe soon opened a grocery store and Chona ran it. Moshe also opened a small nightclub. It was meant to be a place for local Jewish entertainment but eventually Moshe integrated it and started booking black musicians.
Chona was known for her charity toward her black neighbors. She extended credit to those who needed it but rarely collected what she was owed.
However the local Ku Klux Klan had a strong presence and many prominent whites, including the local doctor, participated in the marches to intimidate blacks, Jews and other recent immigrants.
Then the state came to institutionalize a young deaf black boy after his mother’s death. Chona and Nate, one of the black residents of Chicken Hill, conspired to keep the boy out of a notorious mental hospital. This had serious consequences.
This book portrays blacks and Jews who lived side by side in a dilapidated community and helped each other when faced with trouble from the the local white establishment
The author gives a good picture of the hardship the residents of Chicken Hill endured. He is adept in his use of both the dialog of the poor black folks from the South as well as the Yiddish expressions of the Jews recently immigrated from Europe.
This book is well written and the story is memorable.
I received this ARC from the publisher and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I’ve read James McBride differently since I heard him say writing is like music for him; this story is nothing if not a dance. An exuberant, intricately-plotted tale with a wide cast of beguiling characters.

In the town of Pottstown, PA, Blacks and Jews have formed a comfortable alliance, thanks in large part to Chona, a kind Jewish woman who runs the Heaven Earth grocery store. As the dark clouds of fascism pervade Europe, their long shadows invade Pottstown as well. Despite the withering gaze of the Ku Klux Klan, Chona and her husband, Moshe set up popular businesses. When Dodo, a deaf Black child falls in trouble, a great escape for the boy is planned. A delightful novel, filled with delightful characters that affirms the power of community to overcome even the toughest odds.

The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store is a moving book about people who care about each other in a world where there is so much discord. McBride’s story is full of love & community & humanity. He is a wonderful storyteller and has written yet another excellent novel.

The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store is a moving book about people who care about each other in a world where there is so much discord. McBride’s story is full of love & community & humanity. He is a wonderful storyteller and has written yet another excellent novel.

Set (mostly) in a changing Pennsylvania neighborhood of mostly Jewish immigrants and Black Americans near the beginning of the previous century, this richly told, occasionally bewildering (but in a good way!) story of a Black family who hides a young Black deaf child from institutionalization, the owners of a neighborhood theatre and store, and the secrets that come to light after a devastating secret is revealed is a must read for fans of epic historical fiction.

Many thanks to Penguin Random House/Riverhead and NetGalley for a digital review copy in exchange for an honest review.

Quite an intricate story but perhaps a bit muddy and a little heavy handed on "good" v "bad" guys for my taste. Your experience may vary!

McBride sets his novel in Pottstown, PA, a gritty far suburb of Philadelphia. It is the mid to late 1930’s, pre-WWII, but news is reaching the US about the rise of the Nazi party in Germany. Two groups of characters are featured: a small Jewish community and a black community, both sharing the neighborhood of “Chicken Hill,” the side of town neglected by municipal council and lacking such basic services as public water.

The central characters are Moshe Ludlow, owner of a ballroom modeled on Pottstown’s Sunnybrook ballroom, handyman Nate Timkins, who encourages his boss to book black performers as well as Jewish popular bands to increase his business, and their wives Chona and Addie. Both families get involved in trying to protect a deaf twelve-year-old orphan boy called “Dodo” from unscrupulous bureaucrats who insist on sending the boy to the notorious Pennhurst State School (the all-to-real Eastern Pennsylvania State Institution for the Feeble-Minded and Epileptic).

It's a story of good versus evil and the good-hearted working poor versus the greedy, privileged class who get their comeuppance in the end.