An Instant New York Times Bestseller, A murder mystery locked inside a Great American Novel . . . Charming, smart, heart-blistering, and heart-healing, Danez Smith, The New York Times Book Review, We all need we all deserve this vibrant, love-affirming novel that bounds over any difference that claims to separate us, Ron Charles, The Washington Post 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. 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.