Book review: The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden
Published on 19 June 2025
Genre: Historical Fiction
Reviewer: Scott
Why I chose this book:
Shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2024, the Walter Scott Prize 2025, The Aspen World Literary Prize 25, the Dylan Thomas Prize 25 and Winner of the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2025—that is one impressive CV, even more so considering that each of these prizes prioritises different types of literature.
However, I picked this book up as I was curious why a Dutch author was publishing books directly in English and not in Dutch and then getting a translator as is normal.
Quick Summary:
Set in the Netherlands in the 1960s, it's a society still trying to forget the impact of World War II.
Isabel lives in her family house, something now owned by her brothers Louis and Hendrik. When Louis leaves the Netherlands for business, his fiancé, Eva, requests to live with Isabel while he is away. Isabel is initially hostile towards Eva, but what starts as a prickly relationship soon develops into a passionate Sapphic love affair. Yet everything isn’t okay in paradise; houseproud Isabel cannot help but wonder why things keep disappearing.
Van Der Wouden is not just exploring themes of love and relationships but also trust and ownership, and so has written about World War II—a topic well covered in literature—in a way that is unique, challenging, and thought provoking to read.
Thought-provoking literary fiction is all well and lovely, but books are made to entertain us as well. Van Der Wouden's plot contains a couple of major 'what just happened' twists, plenty of suspense, a hint of danger, and a will they/won't they romance that make this book impossible to read slowly.
The complex characters and nuanced relationship both enhance the themes and plot and allow readers to empathise with the complex assortment of emotions that two women in very unusual and fragile circumstances experience.
What I thought:
In short, this book is fantastic highbrow literary fiction, a great time, a fun trashy novel, and an emotionally packed exploration of a relationship all rolled into one. So good you won’t believe it’s a debut.
An absolute highlight of my reading year. Books like this are why I read.
Who should read this?
Anybody who wants a good time, wants their brain to explode with new ideas, or wants an emotionally connective piece.
If you are Dutch, German, Belgian, or from that area, the brilliance of this novel might not work for you; it might be a bit too obvious. Everybody else, pick it up.
Final thoughts:
With this debut, Yael Van Der Wouden emerges as a worthy successor to Sarah Waters, the queen of Sapphic historical fiction.
Read-Alikes: