The Safekeep by dutch author Yael van der Wouden hit my radar after it won the Women’s Prize for Fiction in 2025. It’s been sitting my on TBR for a while and I’m so glad I’ve finally read it. Oppressive, brooding and addictive, it transports us back to the Netherlands in 1961.
Opening sentence: Isabel found a broken piece of ceramic under the roots of a dead gourd.
Isabel & Eva
The Safekeep is the story of two women: Isabel and Eva. Isabel, a young woman in her 20s, lives in a large house in a rural Dutch province. Her mother has died and her two brothers have moved out, so she views it as hers, even though it will be her older brother who technically inherits it.
Isabel isn’t the warmest character but her repression, and subsequent shedding of elements of it, is a big part of her appeal and key to the tantalising nature of this story.
How quickly did the belly of despair turn itself over into hope, the give of the skin of overripe fruit.
When her brother, Louis brings his new girlfriend, Eva to meet Isabel, she takes an instant dislike to Eva. However, due to circumstances out of Isabel’s control, Eva ends up becoming her houseguest for a month.
The forced proximity convention means our characters have to get to know each other, and they do, very intimately.
Just as you think you know where the story is going, Isabel finds Eva’s diary, we get Eva’s POV and that changes everything…
Poignant, haunting, tender and wonderfully written. You are kept guessing and hooked to Isabel and Eva’s stories throughout. The Safekeep is one of those books that wraps around your brain and you find yourself thinking about it long after reading.
Take this as your sign to pick up that book that’s been on your TBR for way too long.
- Get your copy of The Safekeep here;
- Published by Penguin Random House 2024;
- 262 pages;
- My rating:
Books on the 7:47 