New Henley

Book excerpt: After years of chaos and rioting, powerful businessmen create a society to maximize profit called New Henley. A cardiac surgeon and rising son of New Henley’s elite, Alistair Van Doren desperately wants to escape the shadow of his politician father. When he develops a prescient heart device, he is forced to see it used for darker means—as a natural selector. He becomes aware of the true cost of his success and the nefarious men who rule New Henley, when he meets Mr. Zhao—a patient who teaches him the difference between love and reason. A wild spirit trapped by a world that rewards blood, Ana Arendt is an innocent Eve locked in a false paradise. Forced to serve New Henley’s powerful visitors as a Domatron, she tries desperately to repress her past—but it haunts her at night in veiled dreams. Although she is promised the reward of a happy family life, Ana yearns for the freedom to choose her own destiny. When she meets Alistair, he discovers a past intertwined with powerful enemies. Separated by class and position, Alistair is forced to reconcile his deepest beliefs with the paradise he sees in Ana—Ana must confront her ghosts and challenge the prescribed order. New Henley is a story about the mind and the heart, the science of the soul and two lovers trapped by time and circumstance. Keywords: dystopian, speculative, romance, love, doctor, servant, society, soul, heart, riots