The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store weaves history, extraordinary language, gripping plot and characters that have depth and humanity into a book that many reviewers felt was the finest novel of 2023.
Written by National Book Award winning author James McBride, the story is set in the Chicken Hill neighborhood of Pottstown, Pennsylvania, during the 1930s. African Americans migrated there to work for the railroads, as day laborers, housekeepers and laundresses. Eastern European Jews emigrated there to escape pogroms, hoping to ply their trades and practice their faith in peace. Italians and Greeks came to escape poverty and strife. Together, they live on Chicken Hill, without sewers or plumbing. Their labor is needed but much resented.
Moshe Ludlow and his wife, Chona, own the Heaven & Earth Grocery Store. Moshe runs a musical theater and dance hall that serves people of all races and religions. Chona manages the store, where the children of Chicken Hill know that they will never leave hungry. Working for the Ludlows are an African American couple, Nate and Addie Timblin. Nate works at the theater, and Addie helps run the store. Neither couple has children.
When the state decides that it wants to commit Addie’s deaf nephew, Dodo, to a home for the mentally “unfit,” Chona hides the boy in the store’s basement. Government agents begin to make surprise visits to Chicken Hill in search of the child, leaving the community on edge. A wondrous read.
Maureen Millea Smith is a retired librarian and a Minnesota Book Award winning novelist.
