The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store: A Novel (English)

'I loved this book' BONNIE GARMUS
'I can't recommend this one highly enough ' HARLAN COBEN
'I keep thinking every time I read one of his books, "That's his best book." No. THIS is his best book' ANN PATCHETT

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#1 BOOK OF THE YEAR
BOOK OF THE YEAR IN: THE GUARDIAN, NEW YORKER, NEW YORK TIMES, TIME MAGAZINE, HARPER'S BAZAAR, OPRAH DAILY AND WASHINGTON POST
WINNER OF THE 2023 KIRKUS FICTION PRIZE

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 immigrant Jews and African Americans lived side by side and shared ambitions and sorrows.

As the story moves back in time to the 1930s and the characters' stories overlap and deepen, it becomes clear how much the people who live on the margins struggle and what they must do to survive. When the truth is finally revealed about what happened on Chicken Hill, McBride shows us that even in dark times, it is love and community - heaven and earth - that sustain us.

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.