The Safekeep

(Paperback)

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SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2024- An exhilarating tale of twisted desire, histories and homes, and the unexpected shape of revenge 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...

Reviews

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 Woudens 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 its 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 *
An astonishingly skillful debut, The Safekeep manages the rare trick of being both gripping and intimate. A twisting, elegant, intriguing story about the secrets we hide in our homes and hearts - and how it only takes one person to unlock the past. -- Joanna Quinn, bestselling author of THE WHALEBONE THEATRE

Author Bio

Yael van der Wouden is a writer and teacher. She currently lectures in creative writing and comparative literature in the Netherlands. Her essay on Dutch identity and Jewishness, \"On (Not) Reading Anne Frank\""