A Good Neighborhood

In the lush, close-knit community of Oak Knoll, North Carolina, forestry and ecology professor Valerie Alston-Holt is raising her gifted, multiracial son. Valerie is facing the prospect of an empty home after years of being a single mom, and Xavier will be attending college in the fall. Everything is fine until the Whitmans—an ostensibly conventional family with new money, ambition, and a teenage daughter who is quietly troubled—move in next door.

Brad Whitman is somewhat of a celebrity in the community because of his booming local business. He has established a little fortune on his charm and customer service, while Julia, his wife, left her childhood in a trailer park to find security in marriage and raising a family. Who wouldn't want to live in Oak Knoll? Their new home is everything she could have ever dreamed of for themselves? These two very different families, who have nothing in common but a property line, suddenly come to blows over a historic oak tree in Valerie's yard and, shortly after, the budding romance between their two adolescents.

A decent Neighborhood, which is told from several points of view, poses important queries regarding modern American living, such as what it means to be a decent neighbor. In a tale that is as dramatic and thought-provoking as it is provocative, it examines the consequences of race, class, and tragic star-crossed love. How do we live together when we don't see eye to eye?