The Safekeep

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What to expect

Brought to you by Penguin.

WINNER OF THE WOMEN'S PRIZE 2025
SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2024
SHORTLISTED FOR THE DYLAN THOMAS PRIZE 2025
LONGLISTED FOR THE WINGATE PRIZE 2025

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.

'A thrilling, razor-sharp, perfectly plotted debut novel' Sunday Times

'Moving, unnerving and deeply sexy' Tracy Chevalier, bestselling author of GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING

'A brave and thrilling debut about facing up to the truth of history, and to one's own desires… Van der Wouden brings stunning power and control to her page-turner about trauma and repression' Justine Jordan, Booker Prize Judge 2024

©2024 Yael van der Wouden (P)2024 Penguin Audio

Critics Review

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
The Safekeep seeped into my subconscious, took hold and stayed inside me even after I’d finished reading it. Breathtaking prose, febrile suspense and exceptional plot twist towards the end. So many wonderful novels out there, but this one really does stand out
Bernardine Evaristo
Surprising, chilling, and electric. The Safekeep is a simply fantastic work of literature.
Alice Winn, bestselling author of IN MEMORIAM
Yael van der Wouden's compelling , clever novel features several irresistible literary devices. A grand old house. A festering family secret. The shadow of the second world war. And plenty of erotic tension , bringing heat to a story that interrogates dark themes of antisemitism, displacement and inherited trauma...The thrill of Van der Wouden's sly book is that it feels both juicy and deeply important
Observer
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
What a staggering book. Best thing I’ve read in quite a while
Patrick Radden Keefe

User Reviews

Book 4.9
Narration 4.9
4.0
4.0
NellC 05/08/2025
5.0
5.0
theinquisitiveginger 13/06/2025
5.0
5.0
PBee 10/04/2025
5.0
5.0
This extraordinary and powerful novel, enhanced by superb narration, has left me almost without words! I will never forget it and will want to read or listen to it again. The best I can say is, if you value excellent literature, masterful description and dialogue, and enjoy accounts of deep personal growth in awareness and experience, plunge in!
jackdor 23/02/2025
5.0
5.0
lialexia 22/01/2025
5.0
5.0
A captivating book with a twist that takes it from one moral theme to another.
bridgetmck 16/01/2025
5.0
5.0
Victoria Clark 04/11/2024

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