Description

One New Haven summer evening in 2006 a retired grandfather was shot pointblank by a young stranger A hasty police investigation culminated in innocent sixteenyearold Bobby being sentenced to prison for thirtyeight years New Haven native Nicholas Dawidoff returned home and spent eight years reporting the deeper story of this injustice and what it reveals about the enduring legacies of social and economic disparity

In The Other Side of Prospect he has produced an immersive portrait of a seminal community in an old American city now beset by division and gun violence Tracing the histories of three people whose lives meet in tragedyvictim Pete Fields likely murderer Major and BobbyDawidoff describes optimistic families coming north from South Carolina as part of the Great Migration for the promise of opportunity and upward mobility and the harrowing costs of deindustrialization and neglect Foremost are the unique challenges confronted by children like Major and Bobby coming of age in their forgotten neighborhood steps from Yale University After years in prison with the help of a truebelieving lawyer Bobby is finally set free His subsequent struggles with the memories of prison and his heartbreaking efforts to reconnect with family and community exemplify the challenges the formerly incarcerated face upon reentry into society