The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store

I loved this book, — Bonnie Garmus

A generous, compassionate book about the power of love and community, — Louise Kennedy

I can’t recommend this one highly enough, — Harlan Coben

THIS is his best book, — Ann Patchett

• The million-copy bestseller
• Barack Obama’s book of the year pick
• Amazon.com #1 book of the year
• Book of the year in: The Guardian, New Yorker, New York Times, Time Magazine, Harper’s Bazaar, Oprah Daily and Washington POST
• Winner of the 2023 Kirkus Fiction Prize

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 neighbourhood where immigrant Jews and African Americans lived side by side and shared ambitions and sorrows. 

As the story moves back in time to the 1930s and the characters’ stories overlap and deepen, it becomes clear how much the people who live on the margins struggle and what they must do to survive. When the truth is finally revealed about what happened on Chicken Hill, McBride shows us that even in dark times, it is love and community – heaven and earth – that sustain us.

Reviews

The interlocking destinies of McBride's characters make for tense, absorbing drama and, at times, warm, humane comedy. . . If it's possible for America to have a poet laureate, why can't James McBride be its storyteller-in-chief?, — Kirkus, Starred Review

When I met James McBride, I felt like I'd had coffee with a hysterically funny 21st century Leo Tolstoy . . . His excellence in the art of storytelling defies gravity. He writes about deep American wounds with love, rage and a sense of wit . . . If James is one of the most influential artists in America, then there is great hope for America, — Ethan Hawke, TIME

This is one of those novels that becomes a part of you. It's a great book. Every character is rich; every detail is rich. I can't recommend this one highly enough, — Harlan Coben

With his eccentric, larger-than-life characters and outrageous scenes of spliced tragedy and comedy, "Dickensian" is not too grand a description for his novels, but the term is ultimately too condescending and too Anglican. The melodrama that McBride spins is wholly his own, steeped in our country's complex racial tensions and alliances. Surely, the time is not too far distant when we'll refer to other writers' hypnotically entertaining stories as McBridean . . . We all need - we all deserve - this vibrant, love-affirming novel that bounds over any difference that claims to separate us, — Ron Charles, Washington Post

It's hard to imagine anyone being able to write to the caliber of Toni Morrison and Edward P. Jones, but James McBride does just that, — Dallas Morning News

McBride entertains us and shows us both the beauty and the ugliness of humanity, — NPR

A murder mystery locked inside a Great American Novel . . . a charming, smart, heart-blistering and heart-healing novel, — Danez Smith, New York Times Book Review

Wonderful . . . McBride is a fabulous talent, and expertly marshals a vast array of characters with a polyphony of voices, — Mail on Sunday

McBride looks squarely at savage truths about race and prejudice, but he also insists on humour and hope. The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store is one of the best novels I've read this year, — Maureen Corrigan, NPR Fresh Air

A modern-day Mark Twain, — New York Times Book Review

McBride is an acknowledged master of high-resolution historical fiction, peppered with wit and insight, — Goodreads

I keep thinking every time I read one of his books, 'That's his best book.' No. THIS is his best book, — Ann Patchett

McBride's pages burst with life . . . This endlessly rich saga highlights the different ways in which people look out for one another, — Publishers Weekly

Epic . . . Glorious. An uplifting tale of kindness and community, — Observer

Mesmerizing, moving, almost magical . . . a miracle of storytelling that will leave you laughing and crying, — The Associated Press

This book teaches me and gives me hope! It makes me want to be an ally of all that is good, deep, and just. Do yourself a favour, get lost in it, it's story telling at its finest, — Flea

I loved this. A generous, compassionate book about the power of love and community against corruption and bigotry. It's also a lot of fun, — Louise Kennedy, author of TRESPASSES

Funny, tender, knockabout, gritty and suspenseful, McBride's microcosmic, socially critiquing and empathic novel dynamically celebrates difference, kindness, ingenuity and the force that compels us to move heaven and earth to help each other, — Booklist

Shouldn't we just get it over with and declare McBride this decade's Great American Novelist?, — Los Angeles Times

Revolutionary, — Slate

If chicken soup is balm for the soul, then James McBride's eighth book, set in 1930s Chicken Hill, a neighbourhood in a small town in Pennsylvania that is home to Jewish, black and other immigrant people, is its literary equivalent, — Spectator

I loved this book. An intricate weaving of race and prejudice told with heart and hope, — Bonnie Garmus, author of Lessons in Chemistry