Year We Sold

In Gannet Reach, adults can sell one continuous year of lived experience to cancel a debt. The buyer receives no memory-only a public shell of dates, amounts, witnesses, and guarantees. Archivist Elian Voss discovers that his own missing year was tied to the deal that saved the city's harbor. As creditor reviews begin reaching people whose debts were supposed to be settled, Elian follows a paper trail through title records, delivery manifests, and altered attachments. The closer he gets to the civic myth that made the port possible, the clearer the cost becomes: exposing the truth could put the city's workers at risk; silence could leave former sellers as collateral forever. With legal-aid advocate Mara and a reluctant public campaigner at his side, Elian must argue for a remedy that protects people without pretending the past can be restored. The Year We Sold is an adult literary speculative suspense novel about debt, public memory, and the promises a city makes when it asks its most vulnerable people to disappear.