The novel “A Good Neighborhood” (St. Martin’s Press/2020) starts with a premise familiar to many North Carolinians: new residents moving into a historic community and putting up a brand new, giant house.
The Whitmans have just moved to Oak Knoll, a fictional suburb in our state. Their decision to raze all the trees on their lot to put in a pool for their newly-constructed house starts them on the wrong foot with neighbor Valerie Alston-Holt. The conflict deepens as a massive oak tree in Valerie’s yard starts to show signs of stress because of the nearby construction. And teenagers Juniper Whitman and Xavier Alston-Holt begin a budding romance that furthers the bad blood between the families. Host Anita Rao talks to author Therese Anne Fowler about how the real impacts of gentrification inspired her story about race and class.