The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store

Published in 2023, James McBride’s The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store is an adult historical fiction/mystery novel. In 1972, a skeleton found in an old well unravels the hidden secrets of Chicken Hill, a Pennsylvania neighborhood where Jewish and Black communities coexist amidst racial tensions. Chona Ludlow is the Jewish owner of the Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, which shapes the destinies of various characters over the decades. James McBride is a National Book Award winner, and the novel explores themes of community, survival, and justice.

Citations in this study guide refer to the eBook edition released by Riverhead Books in 2023.

Content Warning: The source material contains depictions of racism, antisemitism, xenophobia, ableism, involuntary institutionalization, sexual assault, child sexual abuse, and substance misuse. Additionally, the source material uses outdated and offensive terms for Black people throughout, which this quotes.

Plot Summary

In June 1972, state troopers discover a skeleton in an old well in Chicken Hill, a predominantly Black neighborhood of Pottstown, Pennsylvania. The next day, Hurricane Agnes destroys all evidence of the murder. Forty-seven years before the skeleton’s discovery, a theater manager named Moshe Ludlow marries Chona, the youngest daughter of Rabbi Flohr, who owns the Heaven & Earth Grocery Store. When Moshe’s fortunes grow, he suggests that he and his wife sell the grocery store and join the growing number of Jewish people leaving Chicken Hill. However, Chona refuses to leave her beloved neighborhood. Twelve years into the Ludlows’ marriage, Chona falls ill, and none of the doctors they consult can diagnose her. Her friends and neighbors in Chicken Hill’s Black community rally to support her, and she eventually recovers.

A Black 12-year-old named Dodo lives with his aunt and uncle, Addie and Nate Timblin, after the death of his mother. The state government wants to institutionalize Dodo because he is deaf, and Chona and Moshe hide the boy in their apartment to keep him safe. Chona comes to think of the bright, lively boy as her own child. Doc Roberts, a member of the Ku Klux Klan, agrees to look for Dodo at the request of a cousin who works for the state government. Roberts comes to the grocery store and demands that Chona tell him where the boy is, and the two have a fierce argument. Chona has a seizure, and Roberts assaults the unconscious woman. Dodo hurls himself at the doctor, who calls on police officers to apprehend the boy. Dodo attempts to escape by jumping off the roof. He breaks several bones in the fall and is transferred from the Pottstown Hospital to the Pennhurst State Hospital. There, he befriends a boy with cerebral palsy, the only other child in an overcrowded ward filled with men. Dodo decides to call his new friend Monkey Pants.

Dodo’s uncle, Nate Timblin, was once incarcerated in Graterford Prison, where he developed a fearsome reputation as Nate Love. The Timblins visit the comatose Chona in the hospital, and Addie tells her husband that she saw Doc Roberts assault Chona. Nate urges her not to tell anyone else because challenging the influential white doctor’s version of events will only cause trouble. A week after the assault, Chona awakens from her coma to see her husband, friends, and neighbors gathered around her. She passes away soon afterward.

After his wife’s death, Moshe decides to sell the grocery store. While Addie and Nate help him clean the store, Moshe’s wealthy cousin, Isaac, arrives and offers to pay the Timblins for information about Doc Roberts, but they decline. The Timblins resolve to rescue Dodo from Pennhurst. Five weeks into his time at the sanatorium, Dodo sees an attendant called Son of Man for the first time. The man waits until the nurses’ station is unattended and then strokes Dodo’s torso and calls him pretty. Monkey Pants warns his friend that Son of Man is dangerous. One night, Son of Man sexually abuses Dodo. Monkey Pants stops Son of Man and draws the nurses’ attention but suffers a fatal seizure as a result.

A woman who works at Pennhurst warns the Timblins about Son of Man and explains how a patient could escape by using the old tunnels below the sanatorium. She offers to arrange a meeting between Nate and an egg deliveryman who uses the tunnels every morning. Nate gains access to the ward where Dodo is being held by hiding in the delivery man's cart, and he kills Son of Man with a kitchen knife.

Doc Roberts took the mezuzah Chona was wearing during the assault. He keeps it in his pocket, anxiously waiting for an opportunity to dispose of the evidence. Rumors about the doctor and Chona spread from Chicken Hill, even reaching Gus Plitzka, the chairman of Pottstown’s city council. Plitzka is indebted to a mob boss. Roberts decides to dispose of the mezuzah in a lot with an old well. While he’s there, one of the mobster’s men mistakes Roberts for Plitzka and breaks his jaw, sending him hurtling into an open well. Dodo and Nate relocate to South Carolina, where they are joined by Addie. Dodo changes his name to Nate Love II in honor of his uncle, lives a long and fulfilling life, and has many descendants.