Hush Harbor

Longlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize
A Most Anticipated Book in The Rumpus
A Most Anticipated Crime Fiction Book of Fall 2023 in CrimeReads
A Debutiful Can't-Miss Book

A resistance group takes America's racial reckoning into its own hands in this powerful, stirringly original debut novel 

After the murder of an unarmed Black teenager by the hands of the police, protests spread like wildfire in Bliss City, New Jersey. A full-scale resistance group takes control of an abandoned housing project and decides to call it Hush Harbor in homage to the secret spaces their enslaved ancestors would gather in to pray.

Jeremiah Prince, alongside his sister Nova, are leaders of the revolution, but have ideological differences regarding how the movement should proceed. When a new mayor with ties to white supremacists threatens the group’s pseudo-sanctuary and locks the city down, the collective must come to a decision for their very survival.

Haunting, provocative, heart-pounding and tender, Hush Harbor presents a high-stakes world grounded on the thought-provoking premise: What would you sacrifice in the name of justice?


Genre: Science Fiction

"From the opening chapter of Anise Vance's Hush Harbor, I was totally engrossed. This powerful narrative strikes like a mighty python, wrapping itself around your heart and refusing to let go. At first, you think it's the rhythmic tale of race war in America, then you see it's far more complicated than that. It's about human suffering and who gives a damn; it asks the question 'Will you fight oppressions that have nothing to do with you?'; It's a song of redemption for a people and a nation too consumed with themselves to see each other. With this novel, Vance conjures black ancestral texts and voices such as Sutton Griggs's Emperium in Emperio and Martin Delaney's Blake. All I can say is, this book is an absolute must-read." - Daniel Black

"Hush Harbor examines the monumental task of resisting empathy and confronting the brutal patterns that allow injustices to survive. Anise Vance delivers with a cast of vibrant characters who converge in a rich setting, each seeking the best way to correct some of the world's wrongs. In doing so, they give up their own comfort, dreams, safety, and peace, pushed into survival mode while wrestling with their own relationships and personal histories. Cinematically told, this debut takes off from page one and doesn't slow its pace, just as do the book's heroines and heroes." - Diane Marie Brown

"Taut, gripping, morally complex, and masterfully executed, Hush Harbor could not be more timely. Anise Vance illuminates America's racial realities with unflinching, clear-eyed vision while also asking a timeless question. How do we remain humane to those who strip us of humanity? This is a marvelous achievement." - Ye Chun

"A tension wire crackling with electricity, Hush Harbor dazzles with incredible writing and boils with righteous fury. I could not stop reading." - Lauren Grodstein

"At its fiery core, Hush Harbor is about the nearly unspeakable: a 21st century American Revolution. Through the harrowing story of its inconsolable, if beautiful and potent, rebels struggling in sanctuary against the violence of racial inequity, Anise Vance has revealed nothing less than the secret fears and tender solidarities that reside in our nation's troubled heart. Agile, electrifying, a singular reading experience." - Michael Zapata