The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store is writer James McBride's most recent novel - published in 2023 and recognized on 20 different Best of 2023 lists, it is a must read.  

The novel tells the story of Black and Jewish residents of the Chicken Hill neighborhood of Pottstown, Pennsylvania.  In 1972, local workers digging the foundation 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 and shared ambitions and sorrows. As these characters' stories overlap and deepen, it becomes clear how much the people struggle and what they do to survive. When the truth is finally revealed, McBride shows us that even in dark times, it is love and community that sustain us.

This program is in association with Alliance Francaise, Greenwich