The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store James McBride (audiobook)

 genre: historical fiction

The neighborhood of Chicken Hill might not be fancy. It might be filled with those who exist on the edge of society, heck, it might be filled with people who can’t even always get along themselves. But they know each other and what they are up against as immigrants and descendants of former slaves in a Pennsylvania where the white man makes the rules. And amongst the Jews and African Americans in this there is enough of a camaraderie that the Heaven and Earth Grocery Store is a place everyone visits, especially to see Chona, whose vibrant spirit has made it a place of welcome. When bureaucracy threatens one of their own, the residents of Chicken Hill have a choice to make that will impact even those that are most beloved.

Technically this is a murder mystery, I suppose. I mean, there is a murder and we do find out who committed it. But it’s also so much more than that. It’s portraits of individuals, all tied together in the kinds of knots that small towns can make and what I most appreciated was the way that Jewish immigrants interacted with and yet still kept themselves apart from their neighbors and how that balance can impact the ebb and flow of a sense of community. The darkness here was hard to read but it was balanced out by the compassion and redemption in a way that worked for me. I can see why so many praise this novel and while it wasn’t my favorite read I really enjoyed it.

Audiobook narration was well done.

Content: a scene of child abuse, adult themes