The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden is a 272 page standalone novel published byAvid Reader Press of Simon & Schuster in 2024, and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2024.

Genre:

Historical fiction, literary fiction

Synopsis:

An exhilarating, twisted tale of desire, suspicion and obsession between two women staying in the same house in the Dutch countryside during the summer of 1961-a powerful exploration of the legacy of WWII and the darker parts of our collective past.

A house is a precious thing…it is 1961 and the rural Dutch province of Overijssel is quiet. Bomb craters have been filled, buildings reconstructed, and the war is truly over. Living alone in her late mother’s country home, Isabel knows her life is as it should be—led by routing and discipline. But all is upended when her brother Louis brings his graceless new girlfriend Eva, leaving her at Isabel’s doorstep as a guest, to stay for the season. Eva is Isabel’s antithesis: she sleeps late, walks loudly through the house, and touches things she shouldn’t. In response, Isabels develops a fury-fueled obsession, and when things start disappearing around the house—a spoon, a knife, a bowl—Isabel’s suspicions begin to spiral. In the sweltering peak of summer, Isabel’s paranoia gives way to infatuation—leading to a discovery that unravels all Isabella has ever known. The was might not be well and truly over after all, and neither Eva—nor the house in which they live—are what they seem.

Mysterious, sophisticated, sensual, and infused with intrigue, atmosphere, and sex, The Safekeep is a brilliantly plotted and provocative debut novel you won’t soon forget.

Opening Line:

Isabel found a broken piece of ceramic under the roots of a dead gourd.

My Thoughts:

She had made the kitchen a lovely place. Isabel could cry at it: at how a room could be made, and left behind, and turn terrible by way of absence. How a space could miss a person. How a person could stop–

This book is literary historical fiction set in the Netherlands in 1961, with references to the years of World War II. I was digging it at first, but then wound up getting really bored by it for a while, as plot advancement stalls and we are treated to many, many pages of the main character just being angry and hateful. Things then take a turn and get quite spicy for Isabel (who seems to be portrayed as on the autism spectrum, as well as with some OCD/paranoia/anxiety stemming from the wartime).

Eva said this often: You know what I mean, and Isabel mostly never knew what she meant, not exactly. Only that Eva was frightened and that she saw people as danger. Isabel understood fear. Isabel rarely considered other people at all.

The romance aspect of the story was certainly not boring, but was portrayed in a way I found quite awkward and uncomfortable (there was a whole lot of “pushing” and “pulling” going on in the love scenes, and I understand why these terms might be used once for an affair in which the lovers don’t want to want each other, but these sentiments were a bit overused).

About two thirds of the way in, reading a non-POV character’s diary really flips things around with some magnificent revelations that blew me away. But unfortunately by the end I was bored again.

The writing on the sentence-level overall was good, certainly, but I did get tired with the stilted nature of the prose (a lot of sentences and thoughts and dialogue cut off midway without being completed).

Although I was predominantly underwhelmed by this book, the payoff from reading the diary entries alone was worth it. It will have you seething about man’s inhumanity to man, as it unveils some experiences of being a Dutch Jew in and around the time of the Holocaust.