"The Safekeep" by Yael van der Wouden

My most recent book is  "The Safekeep" by Yael van der Wouden, a critically acclaimed debut novel that's been recommended the by co-host of one of my online book clubs, by Jess at Finding A Different Path,  and by Anne Helen Petersen and numerous other readers at Culture Study.

The story is set in the Netherlands in 1961 -- 16 years after the end of the Second World War (and, interestingly for me, the year I was born).   

Isabel is 31, and lives in a house in the country where she moved with her mother and siblings during the war, and where her mother died 10 years ago. Everything in the house is still exactly as it always has been, and Isabel is obsessed with keeping it that way.    

Her carefully calibrated, placid existence is upended by the arrival of her older brother Louis -- the heir to the house, who will take possession (and leave her homeless), if/when he marries. Louis has brought his new girlfriend, Eva, and leaves her to stay with Isabel while he's out of the country for several weeks on business. The two women instantly and intensely dislike each other. Various objects from around the house have been disappearing lately -- catalogued meticulously by Isabel, who initially suspects the maid, but also begins to wonder about Eva...

And then.... 

This was one of those books that I found hard to put down, and it was a fairly fast read. The writing is excellent, with a twist near the end that changes the whole trajectory of the book.  In some ways, it was difficult to read -- Isabel is an incredibly repressed character, and there's an aura of tension (sexual/erotic and otherwise), suspense, paranoia and anxiety that keeps you turning the pages while feeling slightly uneasy about what might happen next. That said, the war and its traumas were not all that many years in the past, and Isabel's quirks and obsessions are understandable when taken in that context.  

A solid 4 stars on both Goodreads & StoryGraph.  

This was Book #33 read to date in 2025 (and Book #6 finished in October), bringing me to 73% of  my 2025 Goodreads Reading Challenge goal of 45 books. I am (for the moment, anyway...!) 4 books behind  schedule to meet my goal.  :)  You can find reviews of all my books read to date in 2025 tagged as "2025 books."