Super Short Summary

Published in 2023, James McBride’s The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store is an adult historical fiction/mystery novel. In 1972, a skeleton found in an old well unravels the hidden secrets of Chicken Hill, a Pennsylvania neighborhood where Jewish and Black communities coexist amidst racial tensions. Chona Ludlow is the Jewish owner of the Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, which shapes the destinies of various characters over the decades. The novel explores themes of community, survival, and justice. Depictions of racism, antisemitism, xenophobia, ableism, involuntary institutionalization, sexual assault, child sexual abuse, and substance misuse are included.