James McBride in conversation with Nic Stone - The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store

James McBride in conversation with Nic Stone - The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store

Tuesday, Aug 15, 2023 7:00 PM

Location:
The Carter Center
453 John Lewis Freedom Parkway NE
Atlanta, Georgia 30307

From James McBride, author of the bestselling Oprah's Book Club pick "Deacon King Kong" and the National Book Award-winning "The Good Lord Bird," a novel about small-town secrets and the people who keep them.

A Cappella Books and The Jimmy Carter Presidential Library are honored to welcome the author to The Carter Center to discuss his highly-anticipated new novel, "The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store," on Tuesday, August 15, 2023, at 7 PM. McBride will appear in conversation with the inimitable Nic Stone, an Atlanta staple and the bestselling author of "Dear Martin" and "Chaos Theory." 

This event is free and open to the public. Seating is general admission at The Carter Center. Copies of the book will be available for purchase at the venue.

Customers who pre-purchase a signed copy of the book via the link below will automatically be added to our reserved seating list. Please choose "in-store pick-up" at checkout to receive your book at the event.

About the Book

In 1972, when workers in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, were digging the foundations for a new development, the last thing they expected to find was 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. Chicken Hill was where Moshe and Chona Ludlow lived when Moshe integrated his theater and where Chona ran the Heaven & Earth Grocery Store. When the state came looking for a deaf boy to institutionalize him, it was Chona and Nate Timblin, the Black janitor at Moshe's theater and the unofficial leader of the Black community on Chicken Hill, who worked together to keep the boy safe.

As these characters' stories overlap and deepen, it becomes clear how much the people who live on the margins of white, Christian America struggle and what they must do to survive. When the truth is finally revealed about what happened on Chicken Hill and the part the town's white establishment played in it, McBride shows us that even in dark times, it is love and community—heaven and earth—that sustain us.

Bringing his masterly storytelling skills and his deep faith in humanity to "The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store," James McBride has written a novel as compassionate as "Deacon King Kong" and as inventive as "The Good Lord Bird."

About the Author

James McBride is an accomplished musician and author of the National Book Award–winning "The Good Lord Bird," the #1 bestselling American classic "The Color of Water," and the bestsellers "Song Yet Sung" and "Miracle at St. Anna." He is also the author of "Kill' Em and Leave," a James Brown biography. A recipient of the National Humanities Medal in 2016, McBride is a Distinguished Writer in Residence at New York University.

About the Conversation Partner

Nic Stone was born and raised in a suburb of Atlanta, GA, and the only thing she loves more than an adventure is a good story about one. After graduating from Spelman College, she worked extensively in teen mentoring and lived in Israel for a few years before returning to the US to write full-time. Growing up with a wide range of cultures, religions, and backgrounds, Stone strives to bring these diverse voices and stories to her work.

You can find her goofing off and/or fangirling over her adorable little family on most social media platforms as @getnicced, or on her website: www.nicstone.info.