The Safekeep – Yael van der Wouden
I don’t even know where to start. This book is mind blowing. So much story, so much love, so much emotion, so much pain. The Safekeep is hard and soft at once. I feel Yael van der Wouden did such a good job unveiling trauma in such a delicate way. But you can still feel it, deeply. There is love too, deep love.
In The Safekeep it’s 1961 in Zwolle, Overijssel, in the Netherlands. It tells the story of Isabel who lives by herself in the house her uncle bought for her mother and her three children. Her mother passed away, her brothers left and now it’s just her. Now and then she visits Hendrik and his lover Sebastian in Den Haag. She loves her younger brother but there is also resentment. One day her oldest brother Louis brings home a girl, one of many, her name is Eva. He asks Isabel if she can stay with her while he’s away for his work.
Isabel doesn’t like Eva, there is something about her. And it seems Eva doesn’t like Isabel either. There’s a certain hostility between them. For Isabel it’s that she sees Eva as an intrusion, in the house, in her quiet life. For Eva you might think it’s because Isabel is austere and keeps to herself. Eva might also be a threat to Isabel. If Louis is serious about this girl and marries her, he may take the house away from her.
After a while Isabel notices items are missing. Things like plates with hares painted on them, teaspoons, knifes, things like that. She keeps a list of the the items that disappear. But she forgets all about it when Eva and her grow closer. They even become intimate. They don’t talk about what that means, what they will do when Louis returns. They don’t talk about love. They don’t need to. You can feel it though the words Yael uses to write their story. But what is the story behind the mysteriously missing items?
It was nice for me to read a book that is written in English but still seemed very Dutch. Yael is Dutch so that figures maybe 😏. She has been brought up with three languages and apparently English feels most natural to her. I get that.
Beautiful book, beautiful story. A story that needed to be told .
