The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store begins and ends with the same incident, the discovery of a human skeleton down an old well, leaving the author free to gradually fill in the blanks as he sees fit. James McBride certainly doesn’t disappoint, and while the story neatly falls into place, I found myself laughing, crying, fuming, and wondering, in equal parts, while I fell into the story of the Jewish-Black neighborhood of Chicken Hill, outside Pottstown, Pennsylvania, in the 1920s.

Romanian-born Moshe runs theaters, having successfully integrated the first theater in Pottstown, while his wife, Chona, runs the Heaven and Earth Grocery Store. Nate Timblin is the theater’s “Negro” janitor, and Dodo is a local deaf boy whom the state wants to send to a special school, code for insane asylum. We have no kind words for Doc Roberts, central to the action and feared and reviled by Chicken Hill residents, as he has no compassion for the sick people he could be healing.

Desiring only to live “in simple peace and harmony,” (ever listened to or seen “Fiddler on the Roof”?) McBride’s Jews and Negroes manage to weather minor storms until the day the state police finally manage to capture Dodo. He is injured during his capture, as is Chona, and I think that’s all I’ll tell you, except to say that I will be seeking McBride’s previous novels for my literary enjoyment.

The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store, which is loosely based on McBride’s own upbringing, is available at the Bachelder Library in East Andover. NOTE: that library will close for 4–6 weeks in late fall during the ceiling restoration project, a multi-faceted affair. Do stay informed about this project on the Library’s Facebook page and rest assured, the Andover Library will be open during that time to fulfill your literary heart’s desires!