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A Good Neighborhood by Therese Anne Fowler

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A Good Neighborhood

A Novel

by Therese Anne Fowler

Narrator Ella Turenne

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Length 10 hours 35 minutes

Language English

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Bookseller recommendation

“Actions have consequences and we don’t always like the result but getting there is quite the trip. Powerfully moving story that is well told by a great narrator.”
— Mollie • HearthFire Books

Bookseller recommendation

“This moving story, expertly narrated by Adenrele Ojo, is told from the points of view of several main characters, and intermittently by omnipotent unnamed neighbors, after a new family moves into a “good” North Carolina neighborhood. Conflicts arise over the health of an ailing oak tree and a budding romance between two star-crossed teens. Although the story contains alleged and real crimes, and there are perpetrators and victims, it’s the lines between miscommunication and outright lies, latent and blatant racism, bad decisions and criminal acts, and hope and futility that drive the plot. The message for all of us good people: we all can and MUST do better. A Good Neighborhood will appeal to older teens and adults interested in contemporary issues with a twist of a Shakespearian tragedy.”
— Becky • Rediscovered Books

Bookseller recommendation

“The Good Neighborhood proves that nothing should be black and white, but unfortunately, too much of the world still can be. Part of me feels like calling book a modern, suburban version of Romeo & Juliet over-simplifies and even cheapens this story, but that's my immediate reaction to it. This is a tragedy, let's get that clear, at least. Class, race, pride, love, family dynamics, and more are at play in A Good Neighborhood, and it only gets more and more intense as one reads. While I do think this started off a bit slowly, every moment, however useless it might seem at first, fits into place in the end. This is a masterful book that asks many of the questions being asked about race and class issues in the United States today, but in a new and surprising way. Furthermore, despite my comparison to Romeo & Juliet, while there are similarities between Shakespeare's story and Fowler's, there are plenty of surprises. Almost nothing went the way I thought it would, which is usually something I love about the books I deem best.You will want to scream and cry and shout at these characters. This is a painful read, mostly because it could very well happen tomorrow. Don't let it: Listen. To. This. Book. The Good Neighborhood will stay with you.”
— Jackie • Anderson's Bookshop

Bookseller recommendation

“Therese Anne Fowler’s new novel will have you examining the actions and motivations of everyone you know. Her exquisite storytelling and character development deliver an unforgettable and unpredictable story that touches on many contemporary issues, including race, wealth, control, and status. Be sure to leave yourself some time for this one — once you hit the tipping point, you won’t put it down until you finish.”
— Kari Erpenbach • University Of Minnesota Bookstores

Bookseller recommendation

“Great option for those looking to examine the blend between liberal thoughts in theory and thoughts in reality. What do you believe in theory and what do you find when it's actually who your son or daughter is dating. When it's something in your life -- do you care about the environment in theory or when it's a tree in your backyard. Good, easy read with some lovely characters.”
— Gretchen • Katonah Reading Room

Summary
About the author

“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—an apparently 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.

A Macmillan Audio production from St. Martin's Press

“While Faulkner’s story veers off into the traditional grotesquerie of Southern Gothic literature, Fowler’s culminates with injustices that are painfully easy to imagine because they continue to be a part of our contemporary lived experience.” — Washington Post

“A timely story about what happens when we fail to consider how our actions affect others and the tragedy that can befall us if we can’t coexist with those whose values are different from our own.” — Atlanta Journal

Fiction Fiction - Literary

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