Good Neighborhood (International Edition)

Amazon.com Review\nAn Amazon Best Book of March 2020:Valerie Alston-Holt, a widow, is living with her biracial son Xavier in a modest house in the idyllic North Carolina suburb of Oak Knoll, where she spends most of her free time gardening. Then the Whitmans move in, with their new money, McMansion, and in-ground pool. Alston-Holt and patriarch Brad Whitman clash immediately, but Xavier and the Whitman’s daughter Juniper secretly fall in love. The adults are distracted: Alston-Holt is focused on the harm that the Whitman’s property has caused to her beloved oak tree, and plans civically responsible revenge, which ignites the temper of Brad Whitman. It’s hard not to cheer on Xavier, a precocious classical guitarist with a bright future who loves his mother and speaks respectfully to their fellow neighbors at book club night. And although Juniper hails from the offending family, she’s earnest and hard-working, a distance runner who has taken a vow of chastity. While the idea of star-crossed lovers may not be new, this poetically written look at race, violence, and class is both somber and refreshing. Fowler employs the third person omniscient narrator, creating the feeling of a Greek chorus in an ancient tragedy. —Sarah Gelman, the Amazon Book Review