The Safekeep

Reviews

Haunting and exquisitely poignant The Safekeep is thrilling: a riveting historical reconciliation and an impossible yet inevitable love story. Superbly wrought—serious, elegant, sexy, devastating. This is a stealthy, simmering novel about complicity and the lies we live by Moving, unnerving and deeply sexy A beautifully realized book, nearly perfect, as van der Wouden quietly explores the intricate nuances of resentment-hued sibling dynamics, the discovery of desire (and the simultaneous discovery of self), queer relationships at a time when they went unspoken, and the legacy of war and what it might mean to have been complicit in its horrors…. A brilliant debut, as multifaceted as a gem. A beautiful book. Incredibly well-observed, surprising, and deeply textured. 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. An astonishingly skillful debut, The Safekeep manages the rare trick of being both gripping and intimate. A twisting, elegant, intriguing story about the secrets we hide in our homes and hearts - and how it only takes one person to unlock the past. 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 — I was utterly blown away. Surprising, chilling, and electric. The Safekeep is a simply fantastic work of literature. A strange, dream-like and troubling book, as haunting as the history it examines. Yael Van der Wouden is an extraordinarily powerful writer: it's hard to believe this can be her first book. I loved this engrossing, claustrophobic debut novel, the best I've read so far this year. You'll be hearing a lot more about this. Expand reviews