A speculative psychological thriller
Governance is a product. Laws are contracts. And the human mind is the ultimate crime scene.
July 2036. A city founder who can't open her own memory. An old friend at her gate, working undercover. Two words on a fogged mirror.
Nominee Kipod Award 2027 · Israeli speculative fiction prize
The story
Two words on a fogged mirror.
On her fiftieth birthday, Dr. Anastasia Lauri wakes from a dream and finds two words on a fogged mirror: four children.
Anastasia is a psychiatrist who repairs other people's memories. She co-founded Novaland, a free private city where every law is a contract, and CDN Cognitech, the company that maps the human mind. Her whole life is built on control.
That same day an old friend arrives at her gate. He is a detective from Israel's major-crimes unit, working undercover, and the case he is chasing leads to her company and to her absent husband.
The deeper the case goes, the less she can trust anyone around her, or herself. In a city where every choice is a signed contract, the one file Anastasia cannot open is her own.
How well can we know our own minds?
Who's reading it
Four ways into Novaland.
The mystery is the reason to enter Novaland. The world is the reason to stay.
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Even if you never read science fiction
A Psychological Mystery
Memory, identity and a mind that keeps secrets from its owner. How much can you trust what you remember?
“I had never read futuristic science fiction, and the plot gripped me so much I couldn't stop reading.”
Miri · Hebrew edition reader -
For thriller and crime readers
A Race for the Truth
Missing children, a detective working undercover, and clues that make you rethink what you thought you knew.
“Once memory itself can be manipulated, telling loyalty from betrayal becomes an almost impossible task.”
Gil · Hebrew edition reader -
For science fiction readers
Near-Future Technology
Brain-computer interfaces, a company that maps human memory, an AI in every room. What happens when technology can reach beyond the body and into the mind?
“This is science fiction exactly the way I love it: it explores a future technology and asks how it reshapes structures we take for granted.”
Tamar H. · Hebrew edition reader -
For readers who like to argue with ideas
A Radical Social Experiment
A private city built on individual liberty, voluntary contracts and personal responsibility. You don't have to agree with it to want to see how it works.
“Smart and suspenseful. The city runs on contracts you'd never catch me signing, but never mind.”
Sharit · Hebrew edition reader
The city · July 2036
A city that runs on contracts.
Novaland is the author's own proposal, written as a serious thought experiment. It imagines one possible way to end one of the bloodiest conflicts in the Middle East.
In the novel, Novaland is a free private city on the Mediterranean coast. An operating company provides governance as a service. Residents sign a civil contract, arbitration settles disputes, and private insurers decide what is too risky to allow.
Daily life runs on humanoid robots, an AI in every room, fines paid in satoshis, and a neurotech tower a hundred stories high.
A city built around individual liberty, voluntary contracts and personal responsibility. What happens when these principles become the foundation of an entire society?
- Consent
Authority comes from explicit consent. You sign before you move in.
- Contracts
Smart contracts with a comprehension test. No clause binds until you understand it.
- Arbitration
Disputes go to independent, binding arbitration instead of politicians.
- Insurance
Insurers price every risk. When the risk climbs, coverage goes, and a canton locks down.
- Exit
Anyone can leave, on fair terms.
Readers
What readers are saying.
Readers describe cinematic scenes and a mystery that keeps unfolding.
About the author
Anna Shnaidman is an Israeli author and marketing strategist. She was born in Soviet Moldova and grew up in Israel, and she studied cinema at Tel Aviv University and political communication at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
For years she worked in the international liberty movement, as Regional Director for Southern Europe at Students for Liberty and as founding president of LOLA Israel. Novaland is her debut novel. It first came out in Hebrew in July 2026 and was nominated for the Kipod Award.
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