Author | James McBride |
---|---|
Language | English |
Publisher | Penguin Random House [1] |
Publication date | 2023 |
Publication place | United States |
Pages | 400 pp |
ISBN | 9780593422946 |
The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store is a novel by American writer James McBride. It was released in 2023 to critical success. The novel tells the story of Black and Jewish residents of the Chicken Hill neighborhood of Pottstown, Pennsylvania, in the 1920s and '30s.
The novel has been nominated for or won a variety of awards, many of them American, and spanning a wide range of categories from historical fiction to historical mystery. Notably, it won the Kirkus Prize.
The book opens in 1972, in the town of Pottstown, Pennsylvania, where an excavation operation for a new housing complex inadvertently discovers a skeleton in the bottom of a well. Some items are found near the body, including a mezuza, which leads policeman to question the town's only Jewish resident, Malachi, who is living in a disused synagogue. But the investigation is hampered when the crime scene is washed away by Hurricane Agnes. The novel then goes back to 1920s and '30s Pottstown and details the lives of the town's residents in the mostly Black and Jewish Chicken Hill neighborhood. Two of the Jewish residents, husband and wife Moshe and Chona Ludlow, own a local theater with a dance hall and a grocery store (The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store). One of the town's Black residents (who works for the Ludlows), Nate Timblin, asks the Ludlows to hide a young Black boy who is deaf, named Dodo, from the authorities who are seeking to institutionalize him in the Pennhurst State School and Hospital, a notorious mental asylum. The town's physician, also a member of the Ku Klux Klan, has racist and xenophobic motives and is favored by many of the white residents of the town in such policies. The Black and Jewish townspeople eventually mobilize to help the boy.
The book was well received by many critics. [2] According to Book Marks, the book received "rave" reviews based on eighteen critic reviews with seventeen being "rave" and one being "positive". [3] In Bookmarks ' November/December 2023 issue, a magazine that aggregates critic reviews of books, the book received a (4.0 out of 5) with a critical summary saying, "The novel is, "a charming, smart, heart-blistering and heart-healing" ( NY Times Book Review ) work, a true tour de force". [4]
Danez Smith, writing for The New York Times , commended McBride's depiction of how divisions can occur along racial lines even in close knit communities, stating: "By showcasing neighbors misunderstanding neighbors, McBride shines a light on how communities in America are at times walled apart by difference, even in intimate relationships". Smith concluded that the novel is a "charming, smart, heart-blistering and heart-healing novel". [5] Writing for NPR, author Maureen Corrigan also welcomed McBride's ability to depict tensions that may arise between different races or classes of people, stating: "As he's done throughout his spectacular writing career, McBride looks squarely at savage truths about race and prejudice, but he also insists on humor and hope." Corrigan further stated: "The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store is one of the best novels I've read this year. It pulls off the singular magic trick of being simultaneously flattening and uplifting". [6] Considering all of McBride's books in an article in The Atlantic , Ayana Mathis wrote: "Our current era of wrecking-ball polemics lends his oeuvre an air of wishfulness and, at the same time, makes the work that much more relevant". And it "just feels good—we are comforted and entertained, and braced for the hard lessons he also delivers". [7] The New York Times named it one of the 100 Notable Books of 2023. [8]
Year | Award | Category | Result | Ref |
---|---|---|---|---|
2023 | Goodreads Choice Awards | Historical Fiction | Nominated–4th | [9] |
Kirkus Prize | Fiction | Won | [10] [11] | |
Libby Book Award | Adult Fiction | Won | ||
National Jewish Book Award | Fiction | Won | ||
2024 | Aspen Words Literary Prize | — | Shortlisted | [12] |
Jewish Fiction Award | — | Won | ||
Macavity Award | Sue Feder Memorial Award (Historical Mystery) | Pending | [13] | |
Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award | — | Shortlisted | [14] | |
NAACP Image Award | Fiction | Shortlisted | [15] | |
Ohioana Book Award | Fiction | Won | ||
PEN/Faulkner Award | — | Longlisted | [16] | |
Sophie Brody Medal | — | Won | [17] |
Susan Charlotte Faludi is an American feminist, journalist, and author. She won a Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Journalism in 1991, for a report on the leveraged buyout of Safeway Stores, Inc., a report that the Pulitzer Prize committee commended for depicting the "human costs of high finance". She was also awarded the Kirkus Prize in 2016 for In the Darkroom, which was also a finalist for the 2017 Pulitzer Prize in biography.
Larry Jeff McMurtry was an American novelist, essayist, and screenwriter whose work was predominantly set in either the Old West or contemporary Texas. His novels included Horseman, Pass By (1962), The Last Picture Show (1966), and Terms of Endearment (1975), which were adapted into films. Films adapted from McMurtry's works earned 34 Oscar nominations. He was also a prominent book collector and bookseller.
James McBride is an American writer and musician. He is the recipient of the 2013 National Book Award for fiction for his novel The Good Lord Bird.
Joseph Telushkin is an American rabbi and writer. He has authored more than 15 books, including volumes about Jewish ethics, Jewish literacy, as well as the book Rebbe, a New York Times bestseller released in June 2014.
Lee Goldberg is an American author, screenwriter, publisher and producer known for his bestselling novels Lost Hills and True Fiction and his work on a wide variety of TV crime series, including Diagnosis: Murder, A Nero Wolfe Mystery, Hunter, Spenser: For Hire, Martial Law, She-Wolf of London, SeaQuest, 1-800-Missing, The Glades and Monk.
Gabrielle Zevin is an American author and screenwriter.
The Lazarus Project is a 2008 novel by Bosnian fiction writer and journalist Aleksandar Hemon. It features the true story of the death of Lazarus Averbuch, a teenaged Jewish immigrant to Chicago who was shot and killed by a police officer in 1908. It was a finalist for the 2008 National Book Award and National Book Critics Circle Award, as well as, the winner of the inaugural Jan Michalski Prize for Literature in 2010.
The Swerve: How the World Became Modern is a 2011 book by Stephen Greenblatt and winner of the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction and 2011 National Book Award for Nonfiction.
A Girl Is a Half-formed Thing is the debut novel of Eimear McBride published in 2013.
Anna-Marie McLemore is a Mexican-American author of young adult fiction magical realism, best known for their Stonewall Honor-winning novel When the Moon Was Ours, Wild Beauty, and The Weight of Feathers.
On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous is the debut novel by Vietnamese American poet Ocean Vuong, published by Penguin Press on June 4, 2019. An epistolary novel, it is written in the form of a letter from a Vietnamese American son to his illiterate mother. It was a finalist for the 2020 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction and was longlisted for the 2019 National Book Award for Fiction.
Middlegame is a 2019 science fantasy/horror novel by American novelist Seanan McGuire. It was well-received critically, winning the 2020 Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel and garnering a nomination for the 2020 Hugo Award for Best Novel.
The Vanishing Half is a historical fiction novel by American author Brit Bennett. It is her second novel and was published by Riverhead Books in 2020. The novel debuted at number one on The New York Times fiction best-seller list. HBO acquired the rights to develop a limited series with Bennett as executive producer. The Vanishing Half garnered acclaim from book critics, and Emily Temple of Literary Hub noted that in 2020 it was the book most frequently listed among the year's best, making 25 lists.
The Gotham Book Prize is awarded annually to a fiction or non-fiction work judged the best about or set in New York City. The award was founded by Bradley Tusk and Howard Wolfson.
Beasts of Prey is a 2021 young adult fantasy novel by American writer Ayana Gray. Gray's debut novel follows two teenagers, Koffi and Ekon, who enter the magical Greater Jungle in pursuit of a murderous creature called the Shetani. It was published on September 28, 2021, and quickly entered the New York Times and Indie Bestseller lists.
This article presents lists of the literary events and publications in 2022.
Ayana Gray is an American author of young adult fiction. Her 2021 debut novel Beasts of Prey was a New York Times bestseller.
Lev A. C. Rosen, also known as L. C. Rosen, is an American author.
Help Wanted is a 2024 novel written by Adelle Waldman.
Hell Followed With Us is a 2022 dystopian fantasy horror young adult novel by transgender author Andrew Joseph White. It was published to commercial and critical success. An animated film based on the book is currently in production, led by co-producer Lilly Wachowski.