Press Reviews

• Publishers Weekly

  McBride's pages burst with life . . . This endlessly rich saga highlights the different ways in which people look out for one another

• Kirkus, Starred Review

  The interlocking destinies of McBride's characters make for tense, absorbing drama and, at times, warm, humane comedy. . . If it's possible for America to have a poet laureate, why can't James McBride be its storyteller-in-chief?

• NPR

  McBride entertains us and shows us both the beauty and the ugliness of humanity

• Los Angeles Times

  Shouldn't we just get it over with and declare McBride this decade's Great American Novelist?

• Goodreads

  McBride is an acknowledged master of high-resolution historical fiction, peppered with wit and insight

• Booklist

  Funny, tender, knockabout, gritty and suspenseful, McBride's microcosmic, socially critiquing and empathic novel dynamically celebrates difference, kindness, ingenuity and the force that compels us to move heaven and earth to help each other

• Dallas Morning News

  It's hard to imagine anyone being able to write to the caliber of Toni Morrison and Edward P. Jones, but James McBride does just that

• New York Times Book Review

  A modern-day Mark Twain

• Danez Smith, New York Times Book Review

  A murder mystery locked inside a Great American Novel . . . a charming, smart, heart-blistering and heart-healing novel

• Ron Charles, Washington Post

  With his eccentric, larger-than-life characters and outrageous scenes of spliced tragedy and comedy, "Dickensian" is not too grand a description for his novels, but the term is ultimately too condescending and too Anglican. The melodrama that McBride spins is wholly his own, steeped in our country's complex racial tensions and alliances. Surely, the time is not too far distant when we'll refer to other writers' hypnotically entertaining stories as McBridean . . . We all need - we all deserve - this vibrant, love-affirming novel that bounds over any difference that claims to separate us

• The Associated Press

  Mesmerizing, moving, almost magical . . . a miracle of storytelling that will leave you laughing and crying

• Slate

  Revolutionary

• Ann Patchett

  I keep thinking every time I read one of his books, 'That's his best book.' No. THIS is his best book

• Maureen Corrigan, NPR Fresh Air

  McBride looks squarely at savage truths about race and prejudice, but he also insists on humour and hope. The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store is one of the best novels I've read this year

• Harlan Coben

  This is one of those novels that becomes a part of you. It's a great book. Every character is rich; every detail is rich. I can't recommend this one highly enough

• Bonnie Garmus, author of Lessons in Chemistry

  I loved this book. An intricate weaving of race and prejudice told with heart and hope

• Observer

  Epic . . . Glorious. An uplifting tale of kindness and community

• Mail on Sunday

  Wonderful . . . McBride is a fabulous talent, and expertly marshals a vast array of characters with a polyphony of voices

• Louise Kennedy, author of TRESPASSES

  I loved this. A generous, compassionate book about the power of love and community against corruption and bigotry. It's also a lot of fun

• Flea

  This book teaches me and gives me hope! It makes me want to be an ally of all that is good, deep, and just. Do yourself a favour, get lost in it, it's story telling at its finest

• Ethan Hawke, TIME

  When I met James McBride, I felt like I'd had coffee with a hysterically funny 21st century Leo Tolstoy . . . His excellence in the art of storytelling defies gravity. He writes about deep American wounds with love, rage and a sense of wit . . . If James is one of the most influential artists in America, then there is great hope for America

• Spectator

  If chicken soup is balm for the soul, then James McBride's eighth book, set in 1930s Chicken Hill, a neighbourhood in a small town in Pennsylvania that is home to Jewish, black and other immigrant people, is its literary equivalent