This tender and humane work by the prize-winning American author of The Good Lord Bird and Deacon King Kong is an uplifting tale of kindness and community. James McBride’s latest novel opens in 1972 with the discovery of a skeleton in a well. It is a mystery to be solved and pivotal to his plot, but we don’t revisit the scene until the final pages.
Set in the 1920s and 30s, The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store follows the fortunes of a group of Jewish immigrants and African Americans who live together on Chicken Hill in Pottstown, Pennsylvania. Moshe, a Romanian Jew who owns the local theatre and dance hall, falls for Chona, a beautiful Jewish American. She is an avid reader, outspoken against injustice who, despite being “crippled from polio”, harbours “not an ounce of bitterness or shred of shame”. While Moshe makes a success of his business (alternating between klezmer and jazz), she runs the novel’s eponymous grocery store, offering credit to those in need.
