NOW AN HBO MINISERIES

Not in my backyard — that’s the refrain commonly invoked by property owners who oppose unwanted development. Such words suppose a particular ferocity when the development in question is public housing. Lisa Belkin penetrates the prejudices, misconceptions, and heated emotions stirred by the newest trend in public housing as she re-creates a landmark case in riveting fine detail, showing how a proposal to develop scattered-site public housing in middle-class neighborhoods nearly destroyed a whole city and permanently transformed the lives of many of its residents.

— Public casing projects are being torn down through the entire United States. What will take their place? Present Me a Hero explores the reply.

— A significant and compelling function of narrative nonfiction in the custom of J. Anthony Lukas’s Common Floor.

— A sweeping yet intimate group portrait that assesses the consequences of public policy on individual individual lives.