The Safekeep

I realise I’m quite late to this party but, my god, what a book. It’s an incredible novel, delicate yet tough, and pitted with narrative landmines. It blew me away. I haven’t been as enthralled by a novel for a long time. I have immediately insisted that everyone I know reads it. — Maggie O’Farrell

Surprising, chilling, and electric. The Safekeep is a simply fantastic work of literature. — Alice Winn, bestselling author of IN MEMORIAM

The Safekeep is a dream of a novel ― mesmerizing and shockingly good ― it lulls you with the lyrical beauty of its words and then slams you awake with its raw passion and rage. Part silent scream, part breathless love story — Miranda Cowley Heller, bestselling author of THE PAPER PALACE

Haunting and exquisitely poignant — Claire Fuller

Moving, unnerving and deeply sexy — Tracy Chevalier, author of GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING

The story is resolved in such a bold and tender way that it becomes not merely clever, but indelible — New York Times

An impressive debut; I already look forward to Van der Wouden’s next ― Guardian

The Safekeep is a beautiful book, highly charged, tense, shocking and heartbreaking in equal measure.…One of those rare books that feels as if it’s been there all along, waiting to be given a voice. And what a voice this is. — Rachel Joyce

[A] mesmerizing debut….A novel of redemption as much as revenge, The Safekeep has the pacing and twists of a thriller ― Bookpage

Tantalizing… fans of Patricia Highsmith and Ottesa Moshfegh’s Eileen will find much to admire here. ― Vulture

Yael van der Wouden was born in 1987 and lives and works in The Netherlands. The Safekeep, her debut novel, was shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2024. It was also longlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize, the Wingate Prize, and the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction. She lectures in creative writing and comparative literature.