It is 1936 and the Chicken Hill section of Pottstown, Pennsylvania is a neighborhood of mostly Jews and Blacks who, for the most part, get along well. One reason for this is Chona Ludlow, the owner of The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store. Chona would give anyone credit-man, woman or child-as well as helping the citizens of Chicken Hill in other ways. When a young deaf Black boy nicknamed Dodo is wrongly accused of attacking Chona and placed in a mental hospital, these neighbors work to get Dodo out.

A short summary of The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store does not do justice to it. I admired everything about this novel-the characters, the story line and the magnificent prose. Be sure to read McBride’s acknowledgements. I shed a few tears when I came to the end.