The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store – Community, Mystery & Compassion by McBride

James McBride's The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store is a vibrant, compassionate novel set in Chicken Hill, a racially and culturally diverse neighborhood in 1920s–30s Pottstown, Pennsylvania. The story opens decades later, in 1972, when a skeleton is discovered in a well—unearthing long-buried secrets and prompting a journey into the past.

At the heart of the novel is Chona Ludlow, a Jewish woman who runs the Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, and her husband Moshe, a theater owner. When a young deaf Black boy named Dodo is threatened with institutionalization, Chona and Moshe hide him in their apartment to protect him. Their act of kindness draws in their neighbors—Black and Jewish alike—who band together to shield the boy from a system steeped in racism and ableism.

With humor, heart, and lyrical storytelling, McBride paints a portrait of a neighborhood where love and loyalty defy the odds.

Hardcover book with dust jacket in Like new condition.