A review by serendipitysbooks
The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden

challenging emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

 The Safekeep was one of the titles I was most keen to read from the Booker Prize longlist and I'm pleased to report that it didn't disappoint. It is set in a house in the Dutch countryside in the summer of 1961. Isabel's uncle owns the house which he found for them when she, her mother and two brothers needed to move out of the city during the war. She now lives there alone but her calm, peaceful and somewhat regimented way of life is upended when she is forced to host Eva, the latest girlfriend of her older brother Louis, for a few weeks, despite the two women not getting along at all during their first and only meeting. Since the house will pass from the uncle to Louis upon his marriage, leaving Isabel homeless or at the very least beholden and with a clear loss of status in her home, she has solid reasons for not welcoming Eva with open arms. The atmosphere of this book was excellently done. It felt very Gothic. In places, it was so claustrophobic I wondered how anyone could breathe. At other times, it was sensual, rich with desire and passion. Isabel was so rigid and tightly wound that I felt tense just reading about her. When she thought things were disappearing from the house, it was hard to know how reliable she was. Were items truly going missing, or was she just paranoid, unable to cope with the enforced change to her routine? I don't want to say too much about the rest of the plot except to say that it covers some important issues in post-war Europe, issues that seem to get less attention than the Holocaust, but are important none the less. Issues of memory, complicity, ownership, and inheritance were explored to great effect, as were and helped to make this an impactful, memorable, and important novel. 
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