The Safekeep

Name: The Safekeep
Author: Yael van der Wouden
ISBN: 9781668034354

Yael van der Wouden

award won

score

The Safekeep

Yael van der Wouden

award won

score

#174 of 8,085 books · #2 in Romantasy

Won the Women's Prize for Fiction (2025). Also shortlisted or longlisted for 2 other awards.

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.

Buy this book at AmazonAd