Chicken Hill is a dilapidated residential area in Pottstown, Pennsylvania where immigrant Jews and African-Americans lived. In the early 1970s, workers were excavating in advance of building a new development, and were startled to find a skeleton. No one seems to know who it is or how it got there. 

A couple named Moshe and Chona Ludlow lived in the area back in the day, and she ran the Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, while he was busy integrating his theater. REpresentatives of the state were thwarted by their efforts to remove and institutionalize a deaf boy by Chona and Nate Timblin, the janitor at Moshe’s theater and the unofficial leader of the African-American community in the area. 

 As I read the stories of these characters, the big impact on me was how much the people in the Chicken Hill area (like all those who live outside the mainstream of white Christian America) had to struggle just to survive. As the story of what happened in Chicken Hill emerges, a picture of a  community that has found the strength inherent in a close-knit group grows more and more vivid. 
McBride is known for his compassionate storytelling, evidenced by his Oprah’s Book Club pick Deacon King Kong and the National Book Award–winning The Good Lord Bird.  I’ve been feeling discouraged by the lack of progress in reducing (and hopefully, one day eliminating) racism in this country. Events like what happened in this story are horrifying, and I personally didn’t come away from this book feeling positive about humanity in general or white Christian America in particular. But it is beautifully written, and I appreciate Penguin Group/Riverhead and NetGalley for providing a copy of The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store in exchange for this honest review. Four stars.