A Good Neighborhood: A novel

For fans of Celeste Ng and Jodi Picoult, a stunning page-turner about two very different families living side by side in an idyllic neighborhood—and the summer that changes their lives forever.

What happens when you try to do the right thing but it all goes wrong?

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. After years of single parenting, Valerie, a widow, faces the prospect of an empty nest. All is well until the Whitmans—a traditional family with new money and a secretly troubled teenaged daughter—raze the house and trees next door to build themselves a showplace.

With little in common except a property line, these two very different 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.

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.

About the Author

THERESE ANNE FOWLER is the author of the New York Times bestselling novels Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald and A Well-Behaved Woman. Raised in the Midwest, she moved to North Carolina in 1995. She holds a BA in sociology/cultural anthropology and an MFA in creative writing from North Carolina State University.