A Good Neighborhood

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * One of NPR’s Best Books of 2020

A provocative, absorbing read. – People

A feast of a read… I finished A Good Neighborhood in a single sitting. Yes, it’s that good. –Jodi Picoult, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Small Great Things and A Spark of Light

In Oak Knoll, a verdant, tight-knit North Carolina neighborhood, professor of forestry and ecology Valerie Alston-Holt is raising her bright and talented biracial son, Xavier, who’s headed to college in the fall. All is well until the Whitmans–a family with new money and a secretly troubled teenage daughter–raze the house and trees next door to build themselves a showplace.

With little in common except a property line, these two families quickly find themselves at odds: first, over an historic oak tree in Valerie’s yard, and soon after, the blossoming romance between their two teenagers.

Therese Anne Fowler’s A Good Neighborhood asks big questions about life in America today–what does it mean to be a good neighbor? How do we live alongside each other when we don’t see eye to eye?–as it explores the effects of class, race, and heartrending love in a story that’s as provocative as it is powerful.