A Good Neighborhood: A Novel

Oak Knoll, North Carolina, has been the ideal community for Valerie Alston-Holt, a professor of forestry and ecology, to raise her gifted biracial son, Xavier. But their tranquil home is upended when the nouveau riche Whitman family razes the house and trees next door to build themselves a showplace.

With nothing in common but 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.

A Good Neighborhood asks big questions about contemporary life in America as it explores the effects of class, race, and heartrending love in a story that’s as provocative as it is powerful.