Name: M M's review of The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden
Item: The Safekeep
Rating: 4.5
Author: M M

Yael van der Wouden

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 routine 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, Isabel 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 Isabel has ever known. The war 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.

The Safekeep

Storm

Eva had only been gone an hour. Isabel had spent a lifetime alone. She had spent a whole life without this woman, without her in this house, and now an hour. And now her heart raced at the sound of tires on gravel, the sight of her: first a dot, then a person, then a known shape, coming closer.

"There isn't a version of me that could've looked away from you."

“I do know. I do know what it means to want. To-to only want-"… Hendrik looked at her, startled, and she wanted to tell him-wanted to be done with it, make it someone else's burden.

No one knew of her heart and no one knew of her grief and it was torture.

Eva's voice was as familiar to her as her own

Isabel tried to consider Eva, tried to consider her face and her health and found she couldn't, found she had to look away. Found that love was a sickly thing that punished you for each step you took in its direction.

She missed him with a nauseated fear, a gut-deep thing. He had been half her life for so long, and then all at once he was gone.

Hendrik didn’t kiss her hello. Once he'd been a child and she had held him through his night terrors. She thought, 

He has forgotten and there's no one left who remembers that.

Laura Dobie

"No," Isabel said. Eva had stopped weeping. She let Isabel bear her full weight, on her knees on the hard floor. Isabel told her: "There isn't a version of me that could've looked away from you,"

She had held a pear in her hand and she had eaten it skin and all. She had eaten the stem and she had eaten its seeds and she had eaten its core, and the hunger still sat in her like an open maw. She thought: I can hold you and find that I still miss your body. She thought: I can listen to you speak and still miss the sound of your voice.

What was the worth of happiness that left behind a crater thrice the size of its impact. What did people who spoke of joy know of what it meant, to sleep and dream only of the whistle of planes and knocks at the door and on windows and tO wake with a hand at one's throat-one's own hand, at one's own throat. What did they know of not speaking for days, of not having known the touch of another, never having known, of want and of not having felt the press of skin to one's own, and what did they know of a house that only ever emptied out. Of animals dying and fathers dying and mothers dying and finding bullet holes in the barks of trees right below hearts carved around names of people who weren't there and the bloody lip of a sibling and what did-what did she know of- what could she possibly know of what it-

antonia maria wagner she/they

I really, really wanted to like this book. In fact, I had already written it off as a five star read in my head before I even started it. Things obviously didn’t turn out that way. I liked it well enough though, I thought the writing was beautiful at times, there were truly some beautiful and interesting passages. I just found out it’s a debut novel and I’m quite impressed.

That being said, the characters were probably the best element of this book. I didn’t always like them, Isabel especially, but I understood them. I could see where they were coming from, I could see them being real people, with real flaws, and real issues. I liked the relationship between the three siblings, it was strained but also vaguely affectionate and I could #relate. Isabel and Eva were both very complex characters, and I appreciated the way they were written. Isabel has to grow on you, she’s very ignorant and very, very mean. She takes the things she has for granted, but she’s also been through quite a lot, so I got why she acted the way she did, she’s fiercely protective. You got to understand Eva as a character more and more as you read, but at first she’s a bit flat. She doesn’t stay that way for very long though. While I liked both characters on their own, I don’t think they made much sense together. The romance bit through me off, because it came hard, fast, and virtually out of nowhere.

The plot was very interesting. It had never occurred to me to wonder what happened when Jewish people tried to reintegrate into society. Trying to get back all the things that were taken from them and start a life again. I felt that the story did a good job at portraying that, and it was very heartbreaking and eye opening to read. However, I didn’t like the pacing of the story. It dragged at the beginning and then sped up towards the end. Plus I saw the twist coming.

I wish I had a better experience reading this. There were aspects that I liked and all, but it was ultimately a letdown. Still a good book, but not perfect, at least not for me. I would still recommend you read it.

bel 

I really, really wanted to like this book. In fact, I had already written it off as a five star read in my head before I even started it. Things obviously didn’t turn out that way. I liked it well enough though, I thought the writing was beautiful at times, there were truly some beautiful and interesting passages. I just found out it’s a debut novel and I’m quite impressed.

That being said, the characters were probably the best element of this book. I didn’t always like them, Isabel especially, but I understood them. I could see where they were coming from, I could see them being real people, with real flaws, and real issues. I liked the relationship between the three siblings, it was strained but also vaguely affectionate and I could #relate. Isabel and Eva were both very complex characters, and I appreciated the way they were written. Isabel has to grow on you, she’s very ignorant and very, very mean. She takes the things she has for granted, but she’s also been through quite a lot, so I got why she acted the way she did, she’s fiercely protective. You got to understand Eva as a character more and more as you read, but at first she’s a bit flat. She doesn’t stay that way for very long though. While I liked both characters on their own, I don’t think they made much sense together. The romance bit through me off, because it came hard, fast, and virtually out of nowhere.

The plot was very interesting. It had never occurred to me to wonder what happened when Jewish people tried to reintegrate into society. Trying to get back all the things that were taken from them and start a life again. I felt that the story did a good job at portraying that, and it was very heartbreaking and eye opening to read. However, I didn’t like the pacing of the story. It dragged at the beginning and then sped up towards the end. Plus I saw the twist coming.

I wish I had a better experience reading this. There were aspects that I liked and all, but it was ultimately a letdown. Still a good book, but not perfect, at least not for me. I would still recommend you read it.

jess

captivating and sad and sexy. exactly what it needed to be

petrina

such a stunning debut novel, from such a cool author. this was fantastic from start to finish. i wish i could read it for the first time again

“For my house will be called a house of devotion for all.” / “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.”

shen

lesbians vs wholeheartedly accepting the feelings they have for each other

𓆏

Oh my GOD I loved this book. What a story! Such writing! A love story set within the context of life post WWII. This book unraveled so uniquely from start to finish - cannot recommend enough. 

Jacqui Spears

The beginning is instantly intriguing. The ending delivers. Unfortunately, the middle middles on for way too long. 

Frederik De Bosschere

(It should be just under 4☆, to be very honest). I am prefacing this by saying that I am trying to approach this novel by giving it a good-faith reading. And in the end of the day, this speaks of the way I interpreted the novel.

However - and while trying not to spoil the plot - one of the big themes of the novel is displacement and the trauma associated with this and with the genocide of a people. The author herself was born in Israel but is widely referred to as Dutch Jewish. I do not know her, I do not know what is in her heart but it seems pertinent to mention this, given that we can draw very strong parallels to what is currently, today, still ongoing in Palestine. It is something Yael was asked about point-blank in 

https://www.elle.com/culture/books/a60938010/yael-van-der-wouden-the-safekeep-interview/

When I speak about a "good-faith reading", I mean that for me the themes of displacement, ownership and belonging to a place and generational trauma as relevant to the relationship between Dutch Christian and Dutch Jewish people are much more central to the novel and the kind of identities the novel sets out to explore. There is a strong focus on the fact that the Jewish character belongs to the time and place in the Netherlands, where they were born, and that is the place to which they feel both entitled and rooted and this is what the novel inquires. (And there is an interesting comparison to be had to Sebastian, who was born in Algiers to a French mother and an Algerian father, who has had to flee to France with his mother during Algeria's independence war).

Beyond that, Van der Wouden's prose is beautiful, rolling off lyrically and confidently. It is not difficult to see how it has garnered the attention of the Booker committee as it touches on numerous subjects and relies on complex, layered characters.

(It should be just under 4☆, to be very honest). I am prefacing this by saying that I am trying to approach this novel by giving it a good-faith reading. And in the end of the day, this speaks of the way I interpreted the novel.

However - and while trying not to spoil the plot - one of the big themes of the novel is displacement and the trauma associated with this and with the genocide of a people. The author herself was born in Israel but is widely referred to as Dutch Jewish. I do not know her, I do not know what is in her heart but it seems pertinent to mention this, given that we can draw very strong parallels to what is currently, today, still ongoing in Palestine. It is something Yael was asked about point-blank in Elle (and gave a bit of a vague answer -  https://www.elle.com/culture/books/a60938010/yael-van-der-wouden-the-safekeep-interview/ ).

When I speak about a "good-faith reading", I mean that for me the themes of displacement, ownership and belonging to a place and generational trauma as relevant to the relationship between Dutch Christian and Dutch Jewish people are much more central to the novel and the kind of identities the novel sets out to explore. There is a strong focus on the fact that the Jewish character belongs to the time and place in the Netherlands, where they were born, and that is the place to which they feel both entitled and rooted and this is what the novel inquires. (And there is an interesting comparison to be had to Sebastian, who was born in Algiers to a French mother and an Algerian father, who has had to flee to France with his mother during Algeria's independence war).

Beyond that, Van der Wouden's prose is beautiful, rolling off lyrically and confidently. It is not difficult to see how it has garnered the attention of the Booker committee as it touches on numerous subjects and relies on complex, layered characters.

Excellent writing that skilfully evokes obsession, repression, love and desire. A compelling story of family relationships, history, secrets and self-discovery.

M M &
The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden

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The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden