The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden
When I started to read The Safekeep, the debut novel by Yael van der Wouden, I realized within the first few pages where the story was headed. The big surprise was how much it drew me in anyway.
This novel, which explores themes of secrets and self-discovery in post-World War II Europe, is one of the best books I’ve read this year. I loved its psychological intensity, complex female characters and historical backdrop. It's also a slow burn that manages to tell a World War II story in a fresh and provocative way.
Van der Wouden has an interesting background. Half Israeli and half Dutch, she spent her early childhood in Israel before moving to a small town in the Netherlands at age 10. She grew up speaking Hebrew and Dutch but chose to write this book in English.
The novel's setting is the Netherlands in 1961. The main character is Isabel, who lives alone in the country home where her family took refuge during the war after fleeing famine-ravaged Amsterdam. Isabel’s days revolve around pruning the lilacs, dutifully attending church and trying to sidestep the attentions of a young suitor whose aggressive pursuit unnerves her. Her reclusive life is upended after her older brother, Louis, invites his new girlfriend, Eva, to stay at the house while he is away. The bleached-blonde Eva is loud, garish and sexy, everything that Isabel is not.
Eva also harbors a secret, which unfurls late in the novel. This is the twist that I guessed early on and that I suspect others will intuit as well, especially those attuned to the treatment of Jews during and after the war. The back-cover blurb provides major clues about this revelation. I also pieced together other plot elements after perusing a list of prizes the book has won.
The fact that some readers will quickly recognize the truth, but certain characters cannot or refuse to see it, may even have been the author's plan all along. The story takes place at a time when Europe was only starting to grapple with the ghosts of the past and the younger generation had incomplete recollections of the war. Or perhaps they were never told the full story in the first place. For Isabel, who would have been a young girl when the Nazis invaded, "the war was stored in the memory unclearly, all out of order."
The story largely takes place within Isabel's house, which creates a mood that is both intimate and suffocating, as she tries to maintain strict order over every inch of it. While her restless brothers moved out as soon as they were teenagers, Isabel has never wanted to leave. Adrift after the death of her mother, she clings to items she loved, such as the fancy dishes kept locked in a vitrine, too precious to use.
This is above all a book about human relationships, from an unexpected romantic pairing to fraught sibling dynamics and deeply rooted mother-daughter bonds. I also found the book insightful about Dutch culture in the early 1960s. While I think of the Netherlands today as socially progressive, the book depicts a rigid and insular society hostile to any deviations from the norm. For example, It is revealed early on that Isabel's younger brother, Hendrik, is gay, something that the family never discusses outright. We learn this through a series of heartbreaking flashbacks, including a memory of their mother's funeral when Hendrik brings a boyfriend who lingers alone outside the cemetery.
Attitudes toward women were also very traditional. While Isabel is the caretaker of the family home, her hold on it is tenuous. Her Uncle Karel legally owns the house, and Louis, as the eldest child, is set to inherit it. Karel informs Isabel matter-of-factly that the logical solution is for her to get married and find somewhere else to live. "You can't ask too much," he tells her.
The ending of The Safekeep comes a bit suddenly, but I still found the book to be very well crafted and the writing taut and controlled. And even if you anticipate the major revelation, the deft characterization and psychological tension still make the journey engrossing.
