The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store
by James McBride

Wednesday, October 30, 2024, 2:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.

Hybrid Meeting

Edithvale Community Centre, Dempsey Room

131 Finch Ave West, North York ON M2N 4H8

Convener: Sylvia Skippen

Facilitator: Polly Clarke

View photos of Previous Book Club meetings.

Overview

In 1972, workers in Pottstown, Pennsylvania excavated the foundations for a new development and found a skeleton at the bottom of a well. This was the poor neighborhood of Chicken Hill where immigrant Jews and African Americans lived side by side. The story jumps back nearly 50 years to explore the town’s secrets and what it means to live in a community on the margins of “white” America. A deaf boy in town is left without a mother and the state plans to take him into their custody. Moshe is from Chicken Hill and integrated his theatre. His wife, Chona, ran the Heaven & Earth Grocery Store. Nate Timblin is a Black janitor at Moshe’s theatre and the unofficial leader of the Black community on Chicken Hill. When the state came for this boy to institutionalize him, it was Chona and Nate Timblin who worked together to keep the boy safe.

We hope you can join us in person or via Zoom in the discussion of this book.