Book review: Secrets and sex in Amsterdam

Author of 'The Safekeep' Yael van der Wouden was born in Tel Aviv and moved to the Netherlands when she was 10. Picture: Roosmarijn Broersen

• The Safekeep 
• Yael van der Wouden 
• Viking, €18.99 

This unusual first novel is Viking Penguin’s lead literary debut for 2024, acquired during hotly contested auctions in both the UK and the US. 

Yael van der Wouden was born in Tel Aviv and moved to the Netherlands when she was 10.

After so much hype, you expect fireworks, but the novel starts quietly, with Isabel finding a broken piece of delft while working in the garden.

 The blue flowers around the edge and the remnant of a hare’s leg identify it as part of her mother’s favourite crockery set. But she has no memory of a plate ever having been broken.

It is the summer of 1961, and while physically the Netherlands has recovered from the war, people are still haunted by memories and unanswered questions. 

Isabel takes the shard with her to Den Haag, where she is meeting her brothers for dinner in a restaurant. 

Isabel, not yet 30, is quickly established as a humourless obsessive, devoted to the care of the family home which she lives in but does not own.

Her younger brother Hendrik lives with his lover, a French-Algerian, Sebastian, at a time when such relationships were not widely accepted. 

The older brother, Louis, who will inherit the house when he marries, arrives late with his new girlfriend, Eva.

Isabel is not impressed: “She had a violently peroxided bob, a badly made dress — the bodice had been sewn too tight and the hems were messy.” 

She is clumsy and does not know what scallops are.

Nevertheless, when Louis asks Isabel to let Eva stay in the house for a month while he goes on an unexpected business trip, she is unable to refuse. It is his house. 

They are a mismatched couple, Isabel silent and self-contained, while Eva “took up space with a loud restlessness, a bee stuck in a room with all the windows shut”.

Her questions about the house, owned by the family since 1944, are relentless. Isabel suspects that small things are going missing and keeps a list. 

But the innocent young maid, Neelke and a neighbour, Johan, who is pursuing Isabel, are the only visitors. 

“Does nothing bring you joy, Isabel?” Eva asks during one of their silent meals.

The novel is beautifully written, evoking a peaceful rural summer — “It was a bright day, a birdsong day. Insects hissed at the doorway.” 

“The sun streamed in like a fairytale.”

The family’s past is slowly revealed. Hendrik and Sebastian stay the weekend and all four are drenched in a summer storm. Although nothing much happens, the reader is totally gripped.

It comes as a big surprise when it becomes apparent that Eva and Isabel are lovers, obsessed with their mutual pleasure. 

Lesbian sex is described in vivid physical detail as the lovers literally devour each other. “I can hold you and still find that I miss your body,” says Isabel to her new obsession.

Then the story takes another twist, gradually revealing a little-known inheritance of the Holocaust through a family story. 

It all seems so recent, and makes us question the meaning of home, possessions, family ties, and much else. It is shocking to realise that people are not necessarily what they seem.

The quiet opening section may deter readers impatient with the smallness of Isabel’s world, but it is worth persevering to enjoy a memorable, beautifully told story.

As no translator is credited, the book was presumably written in English. 

It is a pity that the publishers have chosen to use American idioms, for example “Go do groceries, Isabel. Figure it out.” or “You’ve done swimming?” “Yeah, yeah, I’m done.” 

A small thing, perhaps, but I believe the English we speak this side of the Atlantic is worth preserving.

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