This was an interesting novel which cast a light on a bit of history I didn’t know much about, the aftermath of WW2 in the Netherlands.

The book is set in 1961 and the two main characters are 30-year-old Isabel and Eva, a couple of years older, so both had been children during the war years. Isabel is paranoid and neurotic, living alone in a house on the east coast which her uncle purchased during the war for her mother and the children to live in after the death of her father; it has been promised to Louis, the older of her two brothers, on her uncle’s death. Her other brother Hendrik is in a relationship with a French man of mixed descent, two facts which are quietly not mentioned in the family. Eva is the latest in a long line of short-lived women Louis introduces to his siblings. Most of these girlfriends come to one dinner and are never seen again, and are generally despised by Isabel and Hendrik, but in spite of an awkward first meeting with the family Eva asks to stay with Isabel while Louis is away on business for a month.

The story builds slowly and menacingly. Isabel lovingly cares for the house and her mother’s favourite things including a set of dinnerware with a hare motif. She is shocked when Hendrik casually mentions that it wasn’t their mother’s at all but had come with the house, which had been bought fully furnished in 1942. She is discombobulated by Eva’s arrival, becoming convinced that Eva is stealing things. She becomes more and more anxious and uptight, and the atmosphere becomes increasingly claustrophobic, until a turning point comes when she is forced to acknowledge that her dislike of Eva is in fact underpinned by a fierce sexual attraction. For a while it feels as though the novel is just going to be a lesbian romance, but the final third takes another turn.

The shadow of the war looms large, even 15 years after its end, all the more present for the memories not really being confronted head on. A dimly remembered episode, when the family were visited just after the end of the war by a hysterical woman with her daughter demanding that her property should be returned, has long ramifications for the plot. I did see the final twist coming from very early on, which probably doesn’t matter since this isn’t a thriller, but it did make the middle third, the developing relationship between Isabel and Eva, feel too long. As obligatory queer subplots in contemporary novels go, this one fitted in better with the overall purpose than some others I’ve read, but I am getting to the point where it’s a device in historical novels that is making me a bit weary.

So, as is often the case with well researched first novels, I’m going to say that there is a lot in this one which is of great interest, and it’s written very well, but it needed to be a bit tighter I think. Worth reading though.

Wow, this certainly wasn’t quite what I was expecting! The story of a house and its belongings, the people who live in it, love and relationships, being true to yourself and the secrets that are hidden away rather than admitted to.
I very much enjoyed this book: the way the characters were drawn and the peeling back of layers to reach the truths. I thought it was a great debut novel which unexpectedly took me out of my comfort zone at times and certainly threw out plenty of food for thought.
With thank to NetGalley and the publisher, Penguin General UK for an arc in exchange for a review.

This is a fantastic novel - an intense and heady story of family, passion and ownership set in 1960s Netherlands.

When Isabel’s brother asks her to let his girlfriend stay with her in their family home while he travels abroad, a chain of events is set in motion which leads her to question the fundamentals of her life. It’s beautifully written, with a lyricism that conveys her sensual and emotional awakening as well as the claustrophobia of the life Isabel has imprisoned herself in.

Alongside this discovery of passionate love and self-awareness comes a revelation that will change the family’s stories about themselves. It reminded me of Alice Winn’s In Memoriam, as both are historical novels centred around LGBTQ+ love (though set in different periods and countries), and both are real page-turners. I was interested to see Winn mentioned in the acknowledgements and hope that this novel will enjoy similar success.

Thanks to Penguin Random House for a review copy: this was truly a pleasure to read.

This is a beautifully written, considered, and thought provoking haunting debut from Yael van der Woudon, a piece of literary historical fiction set in 1961, a character study, an exploration of the repercussions of WW2, family, history, sexual identity, the social norms, attitudes and expectations of women and the limitations this can confer. In the peaceful rural Dutch province of post-war Overjissel, a lonely Isabel is the caretaker of the 'precious' family country home, she is nearly 30 years old, her life curtailed, the house is destined for her brother, Louis, who prefers to live in the city. Isa's other brother Hendrick has managed to escape the tentacles of the house, he resides in the city, with his French Algerian partner, Sebastian, visiting Isa in the hope of luring her into emulating a more independent life.

Isa is driven by everyday routines, tinged with paranoia as she zealously counts and obsesses over pieces of cutlery and other household items, the house maid coming under her suspicious eyes. Louis goes through women easily, but he thinks he has found the one in Eva, whom he brings home, but having to leave, he installs Eva in the house, although there is ice when it comes to how Isa feels towards her. The 2 women are distinctly different characters, there are issues of class, Eva is bold, brash and brassy in comparison to Isa, and Isa rages against how much she makes herself at home, overstepping the boundaries of politeness. However, the ice begins to melt, and fire begins to takeover in their relationship, but who exactly is Eva?

This is a slow, intensely gripping and emotive historical fiction that is hypnotic, the characters are not particularly people I liked, but so skilfully drawn that I could not help but become immersed in the captivating narrative and the key issues it raises, from the war, its consequences and the elements and details of the post-war European world and society. I have no doubt that this book will do well on publication, I can see it appealing to fans of historical fiction and a wide range of other readers too. Highly recommended. Many thanks to the publisher for an ARC.

A terrific debut novel with the plot bearing swiftly - too swiftly? - in a most unexpected direction. For a large part of the novel, two unlikeable female leads, the one cold and crotchety, the other ‘fake’ and untrustworthy. Then, a beloved house, trauma, loss and ultimately, redemption.

As a side note, it doesn’t have the feel of the 60s to me - seems a good 10 years earlier.

My thanks to the author and publisher for my review copy, provided through Netgalley.
Set in the Netherlands in 1961, the war is over – bomb craters have been filled and buildings rebuilt. Isabel lives alone in her late mother’s house, her two brothers living in the city, and she’s happy with her quiet life of routine and order. But this life is turned upside-down when her brother Louis brings his new girlfriend Eva to stay for the summer while he’s on a business trip. Eva couldn’t be more different to Isabel, but when Isabel starts to notice things disappearing her suspicions spiral. But hate and love aren’t too far removed, and paranoia leads to infatuation. What follows is a summer of discoveries, both good and bad.
I can’t believe this book is the author’s debut novel because I thought it was fantastic. There were wonderful twists I never saw coming, but they made complete sense when they happened. I almost wished the story could have been longer as the characters and the setting were great.
The characters in this book are really good, and there was a bit of variety despite the small cast. Isabel has some good growth over the story – she’s a little annoying at the start but gets less. Eva I think is the most complex character, and the contrast between her and Isabel drives the story forward really well. I loved Isabel’s other brother Hendrik, who lives with his partner Sebastian, and I wished they’d been in the book more as they seemed sweet. I think my one criticism was that the characters felt a little shallow at points, and could have done with a little bit more fleshing out.
Overall, I loved reading this book, and I would recommend it to fans of historical romance. Especially if you also enjoy queer romance!

This was an intriguing read. When Louis tells his sister that his girlfriend will be staying with her while he is away, it does not go down well. Isabel is disciplined, lives by routines and hates intrusion. So when Eva arrives, Isabel hates everything about her. She is vibrant, outgoing and wants to be accepted.
As truths come to light, Isabel starts to light both women have something to fight for.
This is a great read, heartache, passion and finding love under strange circumstances.

An immersive page turner set in Holland in the 60's that gives insight into the aftermath and residual issues of the war on those who came back from the camps after world war 2. Whilst I liked the writing and characters, the gratuitous and prolonged intimate scenes didn't add to the plot and took away from the flow of the story for me. 3.5 stars rounded up. Thanks to NetGalley and the Publisher for the advance digital review copy.

The house is everything and was just as much a character as the women. What does it mean to be ‘at home’ and what does it mean to want to belong? You could spend an age studying the inner meaning of this novel but honestly, just as a story, it’s enough. There’s so many layers to it.

Set in the Dutch countryside in 1961, we meet Isabel, who lives a quiet life entirely devoted to her childhood home. Her brother Louis, who will one day inherit the house, prefers a city life and flits from girl to girl. With the arrival of his latest girlfriend Eva in the countryside, Isabel’s quiet world is turned upside down. A slow start but then filled with vivid atmosphere, eroticism, longing and desire. Written with a deep amount of care for its main characters, it becomes an unexpected page turner by the end. Thank you NetGalley and Penguin UK for the advance read.

Love as forest fire, earthquake, tsunami and even transformation

What an extraordinary and surprising read this is. Set in 1961, primarily in a house in the Dutch countryside, which has a background hinted at, and then slowly and shockingly revealed, this features two protagonists, Isabel and Eva.

Isabel lives alone in the house, since her mother died. She is an archetype of the unmarried daughter whose horizons are minute, caring for her mother, left to do so by her two brothers. One brother, Henrik, whom she is closest to, left home quite young, for reasons which will become clear. The other, Louis, is an inveterate womaniser. On the rare occasions when the siblings meet, there is always another woman whom Louis thinks is ‘the one’ in his life. She will no doubt be as quickly abandoned because he has become obsessed with yet another, as all her previous incarnations.

Isabel, in her 30’s, has become more and more of a recluse, obsessed with the things in her house, convinced that her daily hired help is stealing things. She is frozen, possibly has had some personality disorder for some time, or maybe, just never been able to recognise her true self. She pretty well hates strangers, change, and is uncomfortable anyway in the company of others.

Dragged against her will to a meeting with Louis’ latest flame, Eva, a brash seeming young woman with peroxided hair, Isabel hates her on sight, and spitefully humiliates her. So it is particularly shocking and awful when Louis foists Eva on Isabel for a month, while he is away on work. The house and its contents, which Isabel deeply loves, has been left to Louis, not Isabel, by bequest.

So – we have the complexities of siblings, of dysfunction not just within families, but within society, cultures and history itself, as will become clear during the latter stages of the book, where Eva’s history is revealed.

And, explosively, erotically, this is also the history of an explosive relationship, where, for a multiplicity of reasons, repulsion and attraction are tangled all together.

This is quite a short book, but it is absolutely concentrated, and ties the reader up tightly within characters and narrative. Highly recommended. Highly.

It has also sent me exploring aspects of Dutch history which I didn’t know about

Finally, it has one of the longest and most excited acknowledgement sections at the end!

This intriguing story is set in the Netherlands at the start of the 1960s, but its themes concern the ongoing repercussions of the Second World War, the occupation of the Netherlands, and the treatment of Dutch Jews.

Isabel, Hendrik and Louis are three siblings. Isabel lives in the old family home and, like her mother before her, is preoccupied with its possessions and the need to keep it preserved as it was. She worries about the maid stealing her family possessions – which turns out ultimately to be somewhat ironic! Hendrik is an uncomfortable gay man and Louis, who is the formal inheritor of the house, lives a wildlife in Amsterdam.

Isabel is the central character and she, like the house, is blocked and unable to move on in life. She is not a pleasant person! The plot changes when Louis parks his girlfriend Eva at the house while he is away. Isabel detests her presence and is constantly rude and unwelcoming while Eva slowly tries to break down the barriers between them.

Things happen. Isabel responds to Eva’s overtures in an unexpected way and the end of the story provides an unexpected backdrop to the whole of the novel. There’s something not quite satisfying in the way that everything that has developed is suddenly overturned by new information although, arguably, the hints were there earlier in the novel.

However, it is still a good read for the gradual unravelling of Isabel’s character and the revealing of the damage which all of the siblings have carried forward from the Second World War. It’s unexpected!

The Safekeep is set in Holland post World War 2. Sadly, for me it didn't quite live up to the expectation of a thriller. I found I didn't really like (or care much) for any of the characters. I enjoyed the post war history and it does show how far our attitudes, and laws, regarding same sex relationships have travelled since the 1960's. Thank you to netgalley, the publisher and author for giving me the opportunity to read this book.

I thought this was well written and I did enjoy it, despite Isabell being so awful. I thought the sudden change from hate to desire was a bit of a stretch and the sex scenes were too long and tedious, but I found the background of the story very interesting, albeit disturbing - another aspect of the horrors of the second world war.

It's 1961 and the rural Dutch province of Overijssel is quiet. Bomb craters have been filled, buildings reconstructed, and the war is well and truly over. Living alone in her late mother's country home, Isabel's life is as it should be: led by routine and discipline. But all is upended when her brother Louis delivers his graceless new girlfriend, Eva, at Isabel's doorstep-as a guest, there to stay for the season...

I found this story well written if a little drawn out. The characters came alive showing all their foibles and shortcomings. The descriptions are excellent, sensitive and colourful.

An interesting and intense book with an unusual take on WW2 and its aftermath in Holland. The characters were well drawn and believable and I was increasingly drawn into their stories.
Thank you to netgalley and Penguin general for an advance copy of this book.

Set in post WW2 Holland, it revolves around Isabel, a reserved and somewhat neurotic woman living alone whose life and house are turned upside down with the arrival of her brother who summarily deposits his current girlfriend Eva, to stay with Isabel for an undefined period of time.
Inevitably tensions and emotions ramp up in unexpected directions, as both Isabel and Eva’s tangled back story is revealed.
A total gem of a book, beautifully written with marvellous spare descriptions and details of life in the house and I also learned a lot about life in Holland during this period, a definite candidate for my book of the year so far!

Thank you NetGalley and the publishers for allowing me to read this book.

The Safekeep is a really atmospheric, tense, engaging, and different novel which took me on a journey that i did not expect to go on when I read the blurb. It’s a quick and interesting read, with great writing and characters that are well developed. I really enjoyed it!

This is an intense and quite claustrophobic story, set in the Netherlands in 1961, dominated by two main characters, Isabel and Eva.
We meet the now nearly thirty-year-old Isabel in the house her family had moved into when she was eleven. She lives there all by herself with only the regular appearance of the housekeeper for company; her mother died recently and her brothers have moved out. She leads a lonely and solitary life, she is unhappy, full of worry and spends her days in a very regimented way obsessively counting and cleaning household items. When Eva comes on the scene, Isabel’s routine gets fundamentally disrupted and her life is turned upside-down.

Initially, Eva comes across as a happy-go-lucky girl and the deeply suspicious Isabel despises everything she represents. But the reader, along with Isabel senses that there is something hidden under Eva’s façade. She gets under Isabel’s skin and triggers an avalanche of desire and painful self-discovery, all very beautifully written. It was the beauty and precision of its language that kept me going through the second part of this book, which, for my liking moved too slowly, dwelling as it did on the same issues. I am however glad I persevered, since part 3 introduces a new theme to the narrative, that gave what had become in parts an exercise in navel-gazing a new and unexpected dimension.

I liked this book a lot: for the intense and beautiful way it captures desire, for the sensitive way in which the trauma of war is reflected in every aspect of life, and for the sensual way in which human interactions are captured. More than just a good read.

I am grateful to NetGalley and Penguin Random House for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Safekeep was an unexpected enjoyable read for me. I went into it tentatively, unsure what would happen or how the, now finished, World War 2 would rear its head once more.

It sees a tense, tumultuous relationship build from an unexpected place. Isabel has cared for her late mother’s house since her passing and tends to it meticulously. When her brother attends a work trip, leaving his girlfriend, Eva, in Isabel’s house and care, she is horrified. How do you share a house with someone you despise? How do you let them into your life?

For me, the start of the book was slow but as I read more, it became harder and harder to put it down. This story was such an interesting take on an element of the war that I have found is very rarely written about.