Review by Kirstin
The Safekeep
Mesmerising debut of displacement and desire
Marvellously, an unparalleled five of the six titles shortlisted for this year’s Booker Prize are by female writers. One of them is also a debut novel, a remarkable achievement for The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden. Set in a sleepy Dutch province in the early 1960’s, this meticulously plotted story introduces us to Isabel, an uptight young woman leading a lonely existence as the sole inhabitant of her childhood home. Her life is set to be irrevocably altered one sultry summer, when an uninvited guest moves in, disrupting Isabel’s quiet days of ‘small moments,’ and forcing her to confront some uncomfortable truths.