The Other Side of Prospect

A Story of Violence, Injustice, and the American City

By: Nicholas Dawidoff

Narrated by: Diontae Black

One New Haven summer evening in 2006, a retired grandfather was shot point-blank by a young stranger. A hasty police investigation culminated in innocent sixteen-year-old Bobby being sentenced to prison for thirty-eight 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 tragedy—victim Pete Fields, likely murderer Major, and Bobby—Dawidoff 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 true-believing 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.

©2022 Nicholas Dawidoff (P)2022 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

Incredibly good

Excellent writing. Executional story. Inspiring, informative, and cautionary. There are several more Bobbys with very different outcomes. the book explores that reality brilliantly.

Stunning story:a must read

This is a true story of urban injustice, fully investigated by the author, brilliantly written, and sadly authentic.

Brilliant storytelling and narration

The always-insightful Dawidoff’s best book to date- weaves together now-too-familiar aspects of structural racism and inequality into a fresh and compelling story that is both intensely personal and tragically American.

A Decent Book

Although it is a decent book, Newhallville is a great home to many and the abundance of love that exists there was not highlighted nearly enough. Yes, there are shootings as well but, if you really knew the area, you would have shown both sides. The narrator mispronounced many of the names and locations. The book is long and could have accomplished it’s goal in a shorter text. However, I am appreciative that the criminal behavior of the police was highlighted.

A Must Read-A Moving, Honest and Transformative Read

A huge piece of my heart will always belong to New Haven. This book masterfully captures the special beauty, and profound struggles which the Newhallville community has endured. Bobby’s story is reminiscent of so many of my former students. One of brilliance, light, promise and innocence and also of gun violence, poverty and suffering . I was deeply moved by his story and in Nicholas Dawidoff’s writing of it. It is a must read. The reader mispronounces some very important names and landmarks which made me give only 2 stars for the performance.

Good book, dreadful reading

Terrible narration. Many words are misspoken (e.g. "consolation" for "consultation"; "baklava" for "balaclava." Many names of people and places are mispronounced, including "Newhallville," which appears throughout the story. Many sentences are misread, with the wrong words linked or stressed. The audio does not do justice to the written book.

Great information bad narrator.

What happened to this man was terrible.

The narrator kind of ruined it for me. Look forward to the mispronunciation of such common words as appellate. Also there's plenty of mispronouncing well known names like Ruger, Greenwich and Dartmouth.

A well written and researched piece of work, just not read properly.

Narration

This is a useful and comprehensive book. The reader does a very good job, but unfortunately, mispronounces many words.

Thoroughly-researched, well-written, highly informative

This book does an amazing job telling the story of a recent American injustice while compellingly tying together history, sociology, and criminology to give it context. The narrator mispronounced a surprising number of words, but it was still an excellent listen.

compelling story; narrator comically bad

mispronunciations abound. euphemistic for enthusiastic. obsolence for obsolescence. This is above and beyond the worst narration I have ever experienced. The narrator, and Audible's editors and producers, should be ashamed of themselves for this shoddy performance.