"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 andwhere 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. As these characters' stories overlap and deepen, it becomes clear how much the people who live on the margins of white, Christian America struggle and what they must do to survive. When the truth is finally revealedabout what happened on Chicken Hill and the part the town's white establishment played in it, McBride shows us that even in dark times, it is love and community--heaven and earth--that sustain us"-- - (Baker & Taylor)
THE RUNAWAY NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK • A NEW YORK TIMES READERS PICK: 100 BEST BOOKS OF THE 21ST CENTURY
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
From James McBride, author of the bestselling Oprah’s Book Club pick Deacon King Kong and the National Book Award–winning The Good Lord Bird, a novel about small-town secrets and the people who keep them
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.
As these characters’ stories overlap and deepen, it becomes clear how much the people who live on the margins of white, Christian America struggle and what they must do to survive. When the truth is finally revealed about what happened on Chicken Hill and the part the town’s white establishment played in it, McBride shows us that even in dark times, it is love and community—heaven and earth—that sustain us.
Bringing his masterly storytelling skills and his deep faith in humanity to The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, James McBride has written a novel as compassionate as Deacon King Kong and as inventive as The Good Lord Bird. - (Findaway World Llc)
Booklist Reviews
*Starred Review* Deservedly perennial favorite Hoffman returns to narrate his third spectacular McBride title, following 2021 Carnegie Medal–winning Deacon King Kong. The 1972 unearthing of a skeleton at the bottom of a well in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, unleashes the history of Chicken Hill, "a ramshackle neighborhood" that, a half-century earlier, was home to Black and Jewish families, each escaping horrors from somewhere else. Their lives criss-crossed at the titular Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, run by Chona, who inherited the business from her rabbi father. Chona's husband Moshe opened a Jewish theater after having a vision about Moses. Both places were integrated—as much as they could be then—havens for the co-existing communities. Nate was Moshe's right-hand man; his wife Addie was especially close to Chona. The Black couple's unusual request for help to protect Dodo, Addie's young, Deaf, orphaned nephew from authorities determined to institutionalize him will bring unlikely allies together to expel evil and fight for kindness. Hoffman effortlessly embodies the vast cast, bestowing countless unforgettable characterizations: he seethes as Nate, is convincingly delusional as Doc Roberts, is magical as old (and younger) Malachi, and oozes malevolence as the Son of Man. Utterly haunting are exchanges between Dodo and Monkey Pants—grab the tissues for sure. Once more, Hoffman delivers another immersive, soulful gift. Copyright 2023 Booklist Reviews.
