The house is everything and was just as much a character as the women. What does it mean to be ‘at home’ and what does it mean to want to belong? You could spend an age studying the inner meaning of this novel but honestly, just as a story, it’s enough. There’s so many layers to it.

Set in the Dutch countryside in 1961, we meet Isabel, who lives a quiet life entirely devoted to her childhood home. Her brother Louis, who will one day inherit the house, prefers a city life and flits from girl to girl. With the arrival of his latest girlfriend Eva in the countryside, Isabel’s quiet world is turned upside down. A slow start but then filled with vivid atmosphere, eroticism, longing and desire. Written with a deep amount of care for its main characters, it becomes an unexpected page turner by the end. Thank you NetGalley and Penguin UK for the advance read.

Love as forest fire, earthquake, tsunami and even transformation

What an extraordinary and surprising read this is. Set in 1961, primarily in a house in the Dutch countryside, which has a background hinted at, and then slowly and shockingly revealed, this features two protagonists, Isabel and Eva.

Isabel lives alone in the house, since her mother died. She is an archetype of the unmarried daughter whose horizons are minute, caring for her mother, left to do so by her two brothers. One brother, Henrik, whom she is closest to, left home quite young, for reasons which will become clear. The other, Louis, is an inveterate womaniser. On the rare occasions when the siblings meet, there is always another woman whom Louis thinks is ‘the one’ in his life. She will no doubt be as quickly abandoned because he has become obsessed with yet another, as all her previous incarnations.

Isabel, in her 30’s, has become more and more of a recluse, obsessed with the things in her house, convinced that her daily hired help is stealing things. She is frozen, possibly has had some personality disorder for some time, or maybe, just never been able to recognise her true self. She pretty well hates strangers, change, and is uncomfortable anyway in the company of others.

Dragged against her will to a meeting with Louis’ latest flame, Eva, a brash seeming young woman with peroxided hair, Isabel hates her on sight, and spitefully humiliates her. So it is particularly shocking and awful when Louis foists Eva on Isabel for a month, while he is away on work. The house and its contents, which Isabel deeply loves, has been left to Louis, not Isabel, by bequest.

So – we have the complexities of siblings, of dysfunction not just within families, but within society, cultures and history itself, as will become clear during the latter stages of the book, where Eva’s history is revealed.

And, explosively, erotically, this is also the history of an explosive relationship, where, for a multiplicity of reasons, repulsion and attraction are tangled all together.

This is quite a short book, but it is absolutely concentrated, and ties the reader up tightly within characters and narrative. Highly recommended. Highly.

It has also sent me exploring aspects of Dutch history which I didn’t know about

Finally, it has one of the longest and most excited acknowledgement sections at the end!

This intriguing story is set in the Netherlands at the start of the 1960s, but its themes concern the ongoing repercussions of the Second World War, the occupation of the Netherlands, and the treatment of Dutch Jews.

Isabel, Hendrik and Louis are three siblings. Isabel lives in the old family home and, like her mother before her, is preoccupied with its possessions and the need to keep it preserved as it was. She worries about the maid stealing her family possessions – which turns out ultimately to be somewhat ironic! Hendrik is an uncomfortable gay man and Louis, who is the formal inheritor of the house, lives a wildlife in Amsterdam.

Isabel is the central character and she, like the house, is blocked and unable to move on in life. She is not a pleasant person! The plot changes when Louis parks his girlfriend Eva at the house while he is away. Isabel detests her presence and is constantly rude and unwelcoming while Eva slowly tries to break down the barriers between them.

Things happen. Isabel responds to Eva’s overtures in an unexpected way and the end of the story provides an unexpected backdrop to the whole of the novel. There’s something not quite satisfying in the way that everything that has developed is suddenly overturned by new information although, arguably, the hints were there earlier in the novel.

However, it is still a good read for the gradual unravelling of Isabel’s character and the revealing of the damage which all of the siblings have carried forward from the Second World War. It’s unexpected!

The Safekeep is set in Holland post World War 2. Sadly, for me it didn't quite live up to the expectation of a thriller. I found I didn't really like (or care much) for any of the characters. I enjoyed the post war history and it does show how far our attitudes, and laws, regarding same sex relationships have travelled since the 1960's. Thank you to netgalley, the publisher and author for giving me the opportunity to read this book.

I thought this was well written and I did enjoy it, despite Isabell being so awful. I thought the sudden change from hate to desire was a bit of a stretch and the sex scenes were too long and tedious, but I found the background of the story very interesting, albeit disturbing - another aspect of the horrors of the second world war.

It's 1961 and the rural Dutch province of Overijssel is quiet. Bomb craters have been filled, buildings reconstructed, and the war is well and truly over. Living alone in her late mother's country home, Isabel's life is as it should be: led by routine and discipline. 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...

I found this story well written if a little drawn out. The characters came alive showing all their foibles and shortcomings. The descriptions are excellent, sensitive and colourful.

An interesting and intense book with an unusual take on WW2 and its aftermath in Holland. The characters were well drawn and believable and I was increasingly drawn into their stories.
Thank you to netgalley and Penguin general for an advance copy of this book.

Set in post WW2 Holland, it revolves around Isabel, a reserved and somewhat neurotic woman living alone whose life and house are turned upside down with the arrival of her brother who summarily deposits his current girlfriend Eva, to stay with Isabel for an undefined period of time.
Inevitably tensions and emotions ramp up in unexpected directions, as both Isabel and Eva’s tangled back story is revealed.
A total gem of a book, beautifully written with marvellous spare descriptions and details of life in the house and I also learned a lot about life in Holland during this period, a definite candidate for my book of the year so far!

Thank you NetGalley and the publishers for allowing me to read this book.

The Safekeep is a really atmospheric, tense, engaging, and different novel which took me on a journey that i did not expect to go on when I read the blurb. It’s a quick and interesting read, with great writing and characters that are well developed. I really enjoyed it!

This is an intense and quite claustrophobic story, set in the Netherlands in 1961, dominated by two main characters, Isabel and Eva.
We meet the now nearly thirty-year-old Isabel in the house her family had moved into when she was eleven. She lives there all by herself with only the regular appearance of the housekeeper for company; her mother died recently and her brothers have moved out. She leads a lonely and solitary life, she is unhappy, full of worry and spends her days in a very regimented way obsessively counting and cleaning household items. When Eva comes on the scene, Isabel’s routine gets fundamentally disrupted and her life is turned upside-down.

Initially, Eva comes across as a happy-go-lucky girl and the deeply suspicious Isabel despises everything she represents. But the reader, along with Isabel senses that there is something hidden under Eva’s façade. She gets under Isabel’s skin and triggers an avalanche of desire and painful self-discovery, all very beautifully written. It was the beauty and precision of its language that kept me going through the second part of this book, which, for my liking moved too slowly, dwelling as it did on the same issues. I am however glad I persevered, since part 3 introduces a new theme to the narrative, that gave what had become in parts an exercise in navel-gazing a new and unexpected dimension.

I liked this book a lot: for the intense and beautiful way it captures desire, for the sensitive way in which the trauma of war is reflected in every aspect of life, and for the sensual way in which human interactions are captured. More than just a good read.

I am grateful to NetGalley and Penguin Random House for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Safekeep was an unexpected enjoyable read for me. I went into it tentatively, unsure what would happen or how the, now finished, World War 2 would rear its head once more.

It sees a tense, tumultuous relationship build from an unexpected place. Isabel has cared for her late mother’s house since her passing and tends to it meticulously. When her brother attends a work trip, leaving his girlfriend, Eva, in Isabel’s house and care, she is horrified. How do you share a house with someone you despise? How do you let them into your life?

For me, the start of the book was slow but as I read more, it became harder and harder to put it down. This story was such an interesting take on an element of the war that I have found is very rarely written about.

The Safekeep takes place in a Dutch province in 1961 where its main character, Isabel, lives an orderly and quiet life, alone in her childhood home. But the arrival of Eva, her brother’s current girlfriend, will soon shake her rigid world. This book is an absolute stunner and I almost do not want to write anything more about it, so not to spoil the experience. But it is an exploration of one’s place in the world, belonging, ownership and history. The pace is slow, but the atmosphere of the book is soak up with heat, tension, love and hate. This is a book full of secrets and hard truths, and as we get to know them, we realise how well developed the characters of Isabel and Eva really are, how well they hide their true selves from others and from themselves. A really special book to me.

Lovely writing that keeps you enthralled throughout. Tale of romance, lives lost, war torn Holland and the lives of people that lost so much.

The characters are beautifully portrayed, delving into the sexual lives of those involved. Lesbians and homosexuals that came out in the 1960's. Memories bought to the fore from childhood's in the past.

Thank you Netgalley for letting me read this book.

The more the story of the house was revealed the harder I found Isabel's character was to believe. A woman who lives alone and has no internal life or curiosity. I see it as a form of trauma but also a struggle of the author.

The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden


It's 1961 and the rural Dutch province of Overijssel is quiet. Bomb craters have been filled, buildings reconstructed, and the war is well and truly over. Living alone in her late mother's country home, Isabel's life is as it should be: led by routine and discipline. 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...

A very good plot that kept me reading for much longer than I had planned.
Can't say too much without giving it away , but it's beautifully constructed and eloquent.
A joy to read.

An unsettling, peak-behind-your-fingers read. Thought it was a wonderful read, reminded me slightly of 'The Reader'. I hope it does well. It deserves a large readership.

"Safekeep" by Yael van der Wouden is a captivating exploration of desire, suspicion, and obsession set against the backdrop of the Dutch countryside during the summer of 1961. The novel delves into the intricate dynamics between two women, delving into the darker shadows of their shared past and the lingering legacy of World War II.

The setting is richly atmospheric, evoking the lush landscapes of the Dutch countryside while also hinting at the underlying tension simmering beneath the surface.

I expected more of a thriller aspect based on the book's description. Instead, the novel takes a more nuanced approach, focusing on the complex relationship between the two protagonists and the psychological undercurrents that drive their interactions.

At times, the pacing felt a bit uneven, and the dialogue came across as disjointed. However, for those willing to embrace the novel's unconventional style, "Safekeep" offers a unique and compelling reading experience.

Overall, "Safekeep" is a thought-provoking and sexy, atmospheric novel.

A really thought provoking read. I loved the characters and the story unfolded in a really great manner. Recommended.

Set in the 1960s in post war Holland, the Safekeep is Yael van der Wouden's debut novel and the prose is excellent, very tight and controlled, while the characters are well written and believable, if not very likeable! The author creates a spell of tension that spins itself around the main characters, Isabel and Eva, from the start and the plot takes some unexpected turns.

While I appreciated the quality of the writing the book itself wasn't my cup of tea. It may have been the atmosphere of the time period it was written in but felt that it had quite a repressed tone for a large part of the novel.
Many thanks to the publishers and Netgalley for an early release copy in exchange for an honest review.