The Safekeep

An exhilarating tale of twisted desire, histories and homes, and the unexpected shape of revengeIt 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.

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
Surprising, chilling, and electric. The Safekeep is a simply fantastic work of literature. -- Alice Winn, bestselling author of IN MEMORIAM
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 Guardian
The Safekeep is a beautiful book, highly charged, tense, shocking and heartbreaking in equal measure.…One of those rare books that feels as if it’s been there all along, waiting to be given a voice. And what a voice this is. -- Rachel Joyce
[A] mesmerizing debut....A novel of redemption as much as revenge, The Safekeep has the pacing and twists of a thriller Bookpage
Tantalizing... fans of Patricia Highsmith and Ottesa Moshfegh's Eileen will find much to admire here. Vulture

Yael van der Wouden was born in 1987 and lives and works in The Netherlands. The Safekeep, her debut novel, was shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2024. It was also longlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize, the Wingate Prize, and the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction. She lectures in creative writing and comparative literature.

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