Haven

A Novel

By: Ani Katz

Narrated by: Emily Rankin

“Absorbing and uncanny.” —Tracy Sierra, author of Nightwatching

A summer retreat to an elite island enclave tied to a Big Tech company becomes a mother’s worst nightmare in this gripping thriller

After months of financial strain and escalating arguments, Caroline is relieved when her husband, Adam, secures a job at Corridor, a prestigious Big Tech company. Though his long hours on top-secret projects often leave Caroline alone with their newborn son, Gabriel, the life-changing income seems worth the sacrifice.

When Adam suggests a summer retreat to Haven, the exclusive island community popular with Corridor employees, Caroline agrees, hoping the sun-soaked paradise will help Adam relax and bring their family closer. But she can’t shake the feeling that something isn’t quite right about the town. Though Adam assures her of their safety, the locals’ behavior is oddly secretive and ritualistic—even cultish. It’s clear that Corridor hasn’t resolved tensions about the way the company is transforming the island. And it doesn’t help that Adam’s colleagues seem to have a few strange beliefs of their own.

When Caroline wakes to discover that Gabriel is missing, her worst fears are confirmed. Desperate and unsure of whom to trust, she must race to find her son—and pull back the curtain on this elite enclave—before he is lost to the island forever.

Tensely plotted and terrifyingly prescient, Haven is a taut, darkly compelling exploration of the costs of innovation, the far limits of human progress, and the risks we’re willing to take for a brighter future.

Critic reviews

Praise for Haven:

“There were times while reading Ani Katz’s taut, propulsive new novel, Haven, that I thought I was losing my mind. . . . An exploration of power dynamics, surveillance, colonialism, toxic masculinity.”
—Chicago Tribune

“Haven not only draws a timeless portrait of early motherhood, it unflinchingly examines how much of our humanity we’re willing to sacrifice for comfort. Absorbing and uncanny.”
—Tracy Sierra, author of Nightwatching

“Hands down the trippiest book I’ve read all year, Ani Katz’s Haven marries the feverish anxiety of new motherhood with a level of techno-paranoia worthy of Black Mirror. Plotted on shifting sands, and with a cast of inscrutable locals, mystical card games, a teenage coven, and a missing baby, Haven operates as both a futuristic fable as well as a truly unhinged thriller.”
—Ellie Eaton, author of The Divines

"A masterpiece of tension. . . . Technology, hubris, deception, and mistrust combine in an unsettling corporate dystopia that asks what ends would justify which means. Riveting, thought-provoking, and ever surprising, Haven is not for the easily unnerved."
—Shelf Awareness

"Tight plotting and smooth narrative sleight-of-hand set the table for a walloping final few pages. This dark glimpse into maternal anxiety and tech oligarchy enthralls."
—Publishers Weekly

"An unsettling, tautly plotted thriller that explores the dark side of scientific research."
—Booklist