lou's library

I bought The Safekeep because I want to read more books by Dutch authors and because it said on the back that it has something to do with the Second World War. Good enough for me, so in my shopping basket it went. And then suddenly I saw The Safekeep being recommended all across Booktube and Bookstagram, so naturally, I had to read it straight away. And I’m so glad I did, because what stunning novel it is!! Here are my spoiler-free thoughts on this gorgeous little book ❤

It’s set in the 1960’s Netherlands (a time and place I rarely read about so I was very excited to branch out a bit!) and follows Isabel, a woman in her late twenties who is living alone in her late mother’s house in the Dutch countryside. Technically, the house belongs to her older brother Louis (she also has another brother), and said Louis decides to have his girlfriend Eva live at the house while he is abroad for work. Let’s just say Isabel is painfully desperate to stay in control all the time and slightly paranoid someone (the maid, mostly) will steal from her, so she is not thrilled at the prospect of sharing the house with Eva, but has no choice but to accept as the house belongs to her brother. And it all unravels from there.

I know this synopsis does not sound like much, but I promise there is so much more to The Safekeep than meets the eye at first glance. It’s a disturbingly tender story about what it means to have a home, and to lose it. The characters are incredibly complex (well, apart from Louis, maybe) and so likeable in their flaws. I felt for them as though I knew them in real life and actually woke up in the middle of the night to finish the book, I was that desperate to know where they would end up.

That’s what happens when people die. They take themselves with them and you never ever find out anything new about them ever.” (p.208)

As I don’t want to spoil anything, I can’t tell you much in terms of the themes of the book, but if you’re interested in the Second World War (especially its consequences on people living in the Netherlands) and in questions of belonging, control and letting go of the past, then The Safekeep might be a great book for you! It’s also about grief, both in the sense of losing loved ones, but also of losing your home and your sense of belonging (please check the trigger warnings before reading this book, especially if you’ve recently lost a loved one!). But it’s also a love story, at its heart, and I really appreciated how the characters weren’t described as otherworldly godesses, but human beings with perfectly normal bodies. It felt like a much needed breath of fresh air.

I was gobsmacked when I realised it’s a debut novel, because the writing is so stunning and every sentence holds a world within it. Yael van der Wouden created a beautiful little masterpiece about human emotions and I am so, so glad I picked it up on a whim when I saw it at the book store. It’s safe to say I will continue to try and get my hands on as much Dutch literature as possible, because I have a feeling it might be right up my street!

Let me know if you’ve read The Safekeep and if you want more book recommendations, I have a blog post about great books you won’t find on Booktok and the best translated German books. Happy reading!