The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store

The million-copy bestseller: a literary murder-mystery about communities standing together against power and oppression

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 Jewish immigrants and African Americans lived side by side through the 1920s and '30s.

In this novel about small-town secrets and the people who keep them, James McBride shows us that even in dark times, it is love and community - heaven and earth - that sustain us.

Review

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

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

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

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

Epic . . . Glorious. An uplifting tale of kindness and community ― Observer

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

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

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

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

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

About the Author

James McBride is the author of the New York Times-bestselling Oprah's Book Club selection Deacon King Kong, the National Book Award-winning The Good Lord Bird, the million-copy-bestselling memoir The Colour of Water, the novels Song Yet Sung and Miracle at St. Anna, the story collection Five-Carat Soul, and Kill 'Em and Leave, a biography of James Brown. The recipient of a National Humanities Medal and an accomplished musician, McBride is also a distinguished writer in residence at New York University.