The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store
The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store
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THE RUNAWAY NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK
WINNER OF THE 2024 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS PRIZE FOR AMERICAN FICTION
FROM ONE OF TIME MAGAZINE'S 100 MOST INFLUENTIAL PEOPLE OF 2024
NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY NPR/FRESH AIR, WASHINGTON POST, THE NEW YORKER, AND TIME MAGAZINE
ONE OF BARACK OBAMA'S FAVORITE BOOKS OF 2023
“A murder mystery locked inside a Great American Novel . . . Charming, smart, heart-blistering, and heart-healing.” —Danez Smith, The New York Times Book Review
“We all need—we all deserve—this vibrant, love-affirming novel that bounds over any difference that claims to separate us.” —Ron Charles, The Washington Post
In 1972, when workers in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, were digging the foundations for a new development, the last thing they expected to find was a skeleton at the bottom of a well. 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 African Americans lived side by side and shared ambitions and sorrows. Chicken Hill was where Moshe and Chona Ludlow lived when Moshe integrated his theater and where Chona ran the Heaven & Earth Grocery Store. When the state came looking for a deaf boy to institutionalize him, it was Chona and Nate Timblin, the Black janitor at Moshe’s theater and the unofficial leader of the Black community on Chicken Hill, who worked together to keep the boy safe.
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Great book. It made that period harsh yet hopeful. As I was familiar with the area I found it full of memories
LOVE IT...
This book is pathetically demeaning in regard to the profiles of Black people during this era. Especially degrading is the incessant use of pejoratives that are embedded throughout this inconsistent storyline. James McBride (Black/Jewish) should consider the damaging, negative profiles that are promoted in this book!
This fictionalized Pottstown, PA of the 1930's is a hotbed of racism towards Negroes, prejudice against Jews, Italians, and other ethnicities, and an intolerant mistreatment of the disabled. If not for a bit of humor laced into the narrative, this harsh tale would be even harder to endure. As it is, the last half of the book largely evolves into the formulation and attempted execution of a plan to free a young boy wrongly incarcerated in an insane asylum. The points that the author drives home become somewhat tiresome through repetition. This novel is definitely not for those readers who enjoy light reading.
I found this book to be tedious after a while. I liked some of the characters and developments, but there were too many subplots that were unnecessary .