The Safekeep

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.

Review

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

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

About the Author

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", has received a notable mention in The Best American Essays 2018. The Safekeep is her debut novel and was acquired in hotly-contested nine-way auctions in both the UK and the US. Rights have sold in a further twelve countries.