The Neighborhood

A Book Excellence Award finalist in 2023, The Neighborhood is a love story about a changing neighborhood. When a family of color moves into an all-white neighborhood in 1973, some residents brand the newcomers pariahs. The neighborhood convulses and spasms of violence erupt. Rather than run or fight, Makayla, the new family's matriarch, her son Elvin Jr., and her daughter-in-law Shirley are determined to put their "best food forward"-inviting neighbors to parties that feature the family's favorite dishes. The neighbors include the Kelly, Derico and Welles families, all of whose reactions traverse emotional arcs from contempt to confusion to grudging acceptance to love. Family members seek, find, and lose love; some are in trouble with the law; some die; all change and grow over time. Each character has his or her own unique reaction and response, as a neighborhood struggles to adapt, change and grow.