If you liked
Books like The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store
by James McBride
The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store is James McBride's warm, teeming novel about a Jewish and Black neighborhood in 1930s Pennsylvania closing ranks to protect a deaf orphan. Funny, angry and generous. If you want more richly peopled fiction about community and America, these are the reads.
The shortlist
What to read next
Deacon King Kongby James McBride
“Deacon King Kong by James McBride 2020 review. An elderly deacon at a Brooklyn housing project shoots a local drug dealer in the face in September 1969. Oprah Book Club 2020 and the canonical contemporary American comic-literary novel.”
The Nickel Boysby Colson Whitehead
“The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead 2019 review. Two boys at the segregated Nickel Academy reform school in 1960s Florida, based on the real Dozier School. Pulitzer Prize 2020 and the canonical contemporary American novel on institutional violence against Black children.”
The Underground Railroadby Colson Whitehead
“The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead 2016 review. Cora, a slave on a Georgia plantation, escapes north via an actual underground railroad, a literalized version of the metaphor. Pulitzer Prize 2017 and the National Book Award winner that defined the contemporary Black literary moment.”
Homegoingby Yaa Gyasi
“Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi 2016 review. Seven generations of two half-sister bloodlines, one in Ghana and one in America, from eighteenth-century Fanteland to present-day Stanford. Gyasi's debut and one of the canonical contemporary American diaspora novels.”
Song of Solomonby Toni Morrison
“Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison 1977 review. Macon "Milkman" Dead III, born into a comfortable Black family in 1930s Michigan, travels south to discover his ancestral history. Morrison's third novel and one of her two unquestioned masterpieces alongside Beloved.”
Demon Copperheadby Barbara Kingsolver
“Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver 2022 review. A Dickensian retelling of David Copperfield in the opioid-crisis Appalachia of the 1990s and 2000s. Pulitzer Prize and Women's Prize 2023 and Kingsolver's defining late-career novel.”
FAQ
Common questions about The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store read-alikes
- I want more James McBride.
- Deacon King Kong is the one, his exuberant novel about a Brooklyn housing project after an old deacon shoots a drug dealer in broad daylight. Same big cast, same warmth, same mix of comedy and hard history. If Heaven and Earth charmed you, this is next.
- I want the serious side of this history.
- The Nickel Boys and The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead, both Pulitzer winners, look straight at American racial violence. Heavier than McBride, but they share the moral seriousness under his humor.
- I want the multi-generational or mythic sweep.
- Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi traces a family across centuries, and Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison gives the mythic, lyrical version of Black American history. Both widen the lens on the community McBride draws so vividly.
- I want another warm novel about an overlooked community.
- Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver brings the same big-hearted attention to a poor Appalachian town and the opioid crisis, and it won the Pulitzer. A strong match for McBride's love of the people history forgets.
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