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The Safekeep

Winner of the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2025

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The Safekeep

By: Yael van der Wouden
Narrated by: Saskia Maarleveld, Stina Nielsen
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WINNER OF THE WOMEN'S PRIZE 2025
SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2024
SHORTLISTED FOR THE DYLAN THOMAS PRIZE 2025
LONGLISTED FOR THE WINGATE PRIZE 2025

An exhilarating tale of twisted desire, histories and homes, and the unexpected shape of revenge - for readers of Patricia Highsmith, Sarah Waters and Ian McEwan's Atonement.

It is fifteen years after the Second World War, and Isabel has built herself a solitary life of discipline and strict routine in her late mother's country home, with not a fork or a word out of place. But all is upended when her brother Louis delivers his graceless new girlfriend, Eva, at Isabel's doorstep - as a guest, there to stay for the season…

In the sweltering heat of summer, Isabel's desperate need for control reaches boiling point. What happens between the two women leads to a revelation which threatens to unravel all she has ever known.

'A thrilling, razor-sharp, perfectly plotted debut novel' Sunday Times

'Moving, unnerving and deeply sexy' Tracy Chevalier, bestselling author of GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING

'A brave and thrilling debut about facing up to the truth of history, and to one's own desires… Van der Wouden brings stunning power and control to her page-turner about trauma and repression' Justine Jordan, Booker Prize Judge 2024

©2024 Yael van der Wouden (P)2024 Penguin Audio

 Genre Fiction Literature & Fiction Psychological Women's Fiction
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Critics' reviews

I realise I’m quite late to this party but, my god, what a book. It’s an incredible novel, delicate yet tough, and pitted with narrative landmines. It blew me away. I haven’t been as enthralled by a novel for a long time. I have immediately insisted that everyone I know reads it. (Maggie O'Farrell)
The Safekeep seeped into my subconscious, took hold and stayed inside me even after I’d finished reading it. Breathtaking prose, febrile suspense and exceptional plot twist towards the end. So many wonderful novels out there, but this one really does stand out (Bernardine Evaristo)
Surprising, chilling, and electric. The Safekeep is a simply fantastic work of literature. (Alice Winn, bestselling author of IN MEMORIAM)
Yael van der Wouden's compelling , clever novel features several irresistible literary devices. A grand old house. A festering family secret. The shadow of the second world war. And plenty of erotic tension , bringing heat to a story that interrogates dark themes of antisemitism, displacement and inherited trauma...The thrill of Van der Wouden's sly book is that it feels both juicy and deeply important
The Safekeep is a dream of a novel — mesmerizing and shockingly good — it lulls you with the lyrical beauty of its words and then slams you awake with its raw passion and rage. Part silent scream, part breathless love story (Miranda Cowley Heller, bestselling author of THE PAPER PALACE)
Haunting and exquisitely poignant (Claire Fuller)
Moving, unnerving and deeply sexy (Tracy Chevalier, author of GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING)
The story is resolved in such a bold and tender way that it becomes not merely clever, but indelible (New York Times)
An impressive debut; I already look forward to Van der Wouden’s next
What a staggering book. Best thing I’ve read in quite a while (Patrick Radden Keefe)
All stars
Most relevant
Brilliant and intense, with a twist that left my mouth open... i wish i could read it again for the first time

weeklong hangover from this book

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For the first half of the book the main character, Isabel. is a repressed, unlikeable person who is impossible to warm to. But a forced visitor - Eva (her playboy brother’s quirky girlfriend) causes her to change in entirely unexpected ways. Even though the storyline was not entirely unexpected, the strong character depictions and post-war Netherlands setting made it a special book.

One didn’t know until the end quite where this was going and how it would be resolved. The prose was gorgeous and the half-finished thoughts and sentences place you intimately close to the characters, as well as in the presence of the house - which had its own brooding character. It gave so much food for thought on the topics of home, belonging, identity and memory, as well as the redeeming power of love.
I listened to the audiobook version which was wonderfully done.

A lush, sensuous book with incredible character development

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Amazing book, especially for a debut novel, it became an instant favourite of mine. So much depth, emotion and fascinating, multi-dimensional characters.

The performance, however, is somehow not great. Two readers wouldn't be a problem, but they often lack the means to convey the tone of certain lines, while the narrative often sounds airy and rushed. It should have been absolutely crucial to use various colourful voices and tones for (at least) one of the main characters and they just missed the opportunity. There were a few times, however, when the performers could actually deliver loaded conversations, it was just not consistently high quality. I prefer to read this novel.

Painfully beautiful novel with mediocre narration

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The story could have been interesting, discussing guilt in historical circumstances. But it was so larmoyant and so plain in its description and then furthermore combined with the gay coming of age in a time where gayness was still very much a problem. In top of it the main reading voice was like a constant sigh. Terrible to listen to, I wish I would have given it back.

Guilt in history

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