South End Branch African and African American Authors Hybrid Book Discussion: The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride

The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride

In 1972, workers in Pottstown, Pennsylvania digging the foundations for a new development find 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 neighborhood where immigrant Jews and African Americans lived side by side during the 1920s and '30s. It was in Chicken Hill was where Moshe and Chona Ludlow lived, where Moshe integrated his theater and where Chona ran the Heaven & Earth Grocery Store. When the state came looking for a deaf boy to institutionalize him, it was Chona and Nate Timblin, the Black janitor at Moshe's theater and the unofficial leader of the Black community on Chicken Hill, who worked together to keep the boy safe.

Also available via Zoom; join the discussion here at the scheduled time.