The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride

4.1 (48)
$28.00

Product Details

Web ID: 17302206

AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER, 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.

  • Product Features

    • Suggested age range- Adult
    • Format- Hardcover
    • Dimensions- 5.9" W x 8.9" H x 1.3" D
    • Genre- Fiction
    • Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
    • Page count- 400
    • ISBN- 9780593422946
    • James McBride (Author)
    • Publication Date: 08-08-2023

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Ratings & Reviews

Here's what customers think
"The novel explores the diverse community of a small town in the 1930s, focusing on the owners of a local grocery store who extend kindness and support to their Jewish and Black customers despite financial struggles. When a Black couple seeks help hiding their deaf nephew from authorities, the town's residents come together in a heartwarming effort to protect their community. The story is praised for its vivid characters, rich historical setting, and the author's compassionate portrayal of the power of friendship, love, and human resilience."
AI-generated summary from 48 customers reviews.

4.1/5

48 star ratings & reviews

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21 days ago
from Knoxville, TN

Layered. Detailed. Intense...

"The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store" is the first book I've read by James McBride. I found his writing style detailed and intense. The backstory of how the immigrant neighborhood of Chicken Hill came to be was substantial and based on its residents' diversity and family history. It can get complicated, but the result was characters who were fully fleshed-out, true to life, with good hearts. A few were less than good, but this story needed that balance. At times, it was challenging to keep track of so many characters. I'm not one to take notes as I read, but this may be a story where doing so is wise; the flip side is getting lost in the weeds and having to backtrack like I did. This is especially true when listening to the audiobook. The 12H 21M audiobook was narrated by Dominic Hoffman, who couldn't have been more perfect for recounting this story. His voice was clear and calming, an asset for this noisy tale. His voicing of the many characters was remarkable. I thought it was genius of McBride to overlap and layer all the characters' stories through two distinct timelines until the truth of the two secrets from long ago was revealed. The final denouement is worth the wait. I enjoyed "The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store", the time spent with the Chicken Hill community, and their strong sense of pride, humanity, and love. 4⭐

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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com

2 months ago

Don’t waste your time

I was surprised this book could be book of the year. The story rambles, has no point and grammar teachers would love to use the examples of run-on sentences throughout the book.

Customer review from barnesandnoble.com

4 months ago
from GA

It sped up too late and too fast

It was a struggle to get through this book. Too many characters to remember. When it finally picked up speed, there were only about 40 pages left. Actual proceeding of one of the main events of the book was skipped and it was mentioned in the epilogue in the past tense. I'm very much dissatisfied by the way it ended. It's definitely NOT a murder mystery.

Customer review from barnesandnoble.com

7 months ago
from Atlanta, GA

Adding to Why is this book so popular?

I agree with others that didn't really like this book. I got because it was supposed to be a best seller. But as other have commented it is very hard to follow and it took me awhile to read. Introduction of characters that don't seem to add to the story. I also think at times he mislead the reader. One min saying someone would not see that person again only to see them again in the next few chapters. I hated to give it a bad review but it was not a good book to me.

Customer review from barnesandnoble.com

7 months ago
from CA

Interesting but not engrossing

It's a great effort, but for me it tended to stay too long on some of the topics, characters, events. He has great ideas but once the idea is flushed out I'm ready to move on to the rest of the story; instead it lingers a little too long. I'm having trouble finishing. Hope to finish tonight or tomorrow.

Recommends this product

Customer review from barnesandnoble.com

9 months ago
from Bothell, WA

Characters draw you in

James McBride fit quite a bit into this book, The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store. It started out in the ‘70s with a mystery of a body found in the bottom of a well then the majority of the book takes place in the 1930s where he introduces the reader to MANY characters and tells their backstories. Sometimes these backstories seem to go nowhere but then they are connected for you later. My heart broke for Dodo and I loved how the book wraps up and answers the original mystery by the end. James McBride is a great writer and I felt drawn into the community he developed. This was definitely not a short read, but I would recommend if you like to take your time getting to really know the characters and wrapping around to the story resolution.

Recommends this product

Customer review from barnesandnoble.com

11 months ago
from Atlanta

A Surprise

I brought this book about 2 weeks ago and I already finished it. Initially when I first bought it, I wanted something different than the few books that I have been picking. I saw this was a best seller and gave it a try. The book started off very slow, but the more you read it the more you understood that Mr. McBride is a genius story teller. I throughly enjoyed this book and may read it again to see what I missed. Loved it.

Recommends this product

Customer review from barnesandnoble.com

1 year ago

A tapestry of humanity

Fantastic read. Historical fiction at its best. Pulls at your heart the whole way through. Could not put it down. Wow.

Recommends this product

Customer review from barnesandnoble.com