Welcome to the Book Review Book Club! Every month, we select a book to discuss with our readers. Last month, we read “Playworld,” by Adam Ross. (You can also go back and listen to our episodes on “We Do Not Part,” “Orbital,” and “Our Evenings.”)
Whenever I mention that I work in books, the next question I invariably get is: “Do you have a good book recommendation?” It’s a surprisingly difficult question to answer effectively on the spot. Tastes vary. The genres, tones and moods that I love may not be what someone else finds compelling. The trick becomes suggesting something that is excellent, that the inquirer likely hasn’t already read and that will appeal no matter what kind of reader I’m talking to.
For the past few months, when faced with this query, I have had one go-to answer: “The Safekeep,” by Yael van der Wouden.
A debut novel that was shortlisted for the 2024 Booker Prize, “The Safekeep” is many things at once — a historical tale (sure, it’s set only 60 years ago, but it’s grappling with the baggage of a discreet, postwar era), a psychological thriller, a forbidden romance. It opens in the Netherlands in 1961. Isabel is a joyless loner who spends most of her time hiding in her deceased mother’s old country house. One night she goes out to dinner with her brothers, Hendrik and Louis. Surprisingly, Louis brings along a new girlfriend, Eva, and Isabel immediately senses something is amiss. On the surface Eva is silly and brash, but Isabel can detect that under Eva’s ditsy facade lurks a sharper, more dangerous disposition.
When Louis has leaves for a work trip, he sends Eva to stay at the country house, much to Isabel’s chagrin. But Isabel doesn’t have a say; technically, the house was promised to Louis and he can do with it as he pleases. Forced together, Isabel and Eva form a charged and ever-evolving relationship that threatens to upend everything that Isabel thought she knew.
In May, the Book Review Book Club will read and discuss “The Safekeep,” by Yael van der Wouden. We’ll be chatting about the book on the Book Review podcast that airs on May 30, and we’d love for you to join the conversation. Share your thoughts about the novel in the comments section of this article by May 22, and we may mention your observations in the episode.
Here’s some related reading to get you started:
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Our review of “The Safekeep”: “The vivid, tense character of Isabel is the first great achievement in ‘The Safekeep’; her fears and her worries and her isolation, her determination to stay in her grief and shut others out, the way this armor slowly and then quickly cracks apart. A close second is the novel’s structure: a steady revelation, piece by piece, that continues to deepen the narrative with each chapter.” (Read the full review, written by the author Lori Soderlind, here.)
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The Booker judges’ citation describing “The Safekeep”: “Set in the early 1960s in the Netherlands in an isolated house, ‘The Safekeep’ draws us into a world as carefully calibrated as a Dutch still-life. … We loved this debut novel for its remarkable inhabitation of obsession. It navigates an emotional landscape of loss and return in an unforgettable way.” (Learn more here.)
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Elle’s interview with Yael van der Wouden: “I think, for me, what is very important is to love every single character. Even the bad ones. Even the worst ones. The reason why I wanted to write Isabel that way is — I have read so many stories, and especially about this period and about the Holocaust, written from the perspective of victimhood, from the question of victimhood, consideration of victimhood. And I think the danger of that is that you have an entire canon that encourages people to identify with victimhood and not come to understand how they themselves might become perpetrators.” (Read the full interview, conducted by Nicole Young, here.)
We can’t wait to discuss the book with you. In the meantime, happy reading!
The post Book Club: Read ‘The Safekeep,’ by Yael van der Wouden, With the Book Review appeared first on New York Times.
