Yael van der Wouden

The Safekeep (eBook, ePUB)

Booker Prize Shortlisted 2024

• Format: ePub

Produktbeschreibung

'Surprising, chilling, and electric. The Safekeep is a simply fantastic work of literature.' Alice Winn, bestselling author of IN MEMORIAM

'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'- Miranda Cowley Heller

'A house is a precious thing...'

An exhilarating tale of twisted desire, histories and homes, and the unexpected shape of revenge - for readers of Patricia Highsmith, Sarah Waters and Ian McEwan's Atonement

It's 1961 and the rural Dutch province of Overijssel is quiet. Bomb craters have been filled, buildings reconstructed, and the war is well and truly over. Living alone in her late mother's country home, Isabel's life is as it should be: led by routine and discipline. But all is upended when her brother Louis delivers his graceless new girlfriend, Eva, at Isabel's doorstep-as a guest, there to stay for the season...

Eva is Isabel's antithesis: sleeps late, wakes late, walks loudly through the house and touches things she shouldn't. In response Isabel develops a fury-fuelled obsession, and when things start disappearing around the house-a spoon, a knife, a bowl-Isabel' suspicions spiral out of control. In the sweltering peak of summer, Isabel's paranoia gives way to desire - leading to a discovery that unravels all Isabel has ever known. The war might not be well and truly over after all, and neither Eva - nor the house in which they live - are what they seem.

'Haunting and exquisitely poignant' - Claire Fuller

'This is a stealthy, simmering novel about complicity and the lies we live by' - Clare Pollard

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Produktdetails

• Verlag: Penguin Books Ltd
• Erscheinungstermin: 28. Mai 2024
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9780241999783
• Artikelnr.: 68612240

Autorenporträt

Yael van der Wouden is a writer and teacher. She currently lectures in creative writing and comparative literature in the Netherlands. Her essay on Dutch identity and Jewishness, "On (Not) Reading Anne Frank", has received a notable mention in The Best American Essays 2018. The Safekeep is her debut novel and was acquired in hotly-contested nine-way auctions in both the UK and the US. Rights have sold in a further twelve countries. THE SAFEKEEP is shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2024.

Rezensionen

"It is the only book I have read this year that has made me cry. . . . Van der Wouden has produced the rare novel about World War II, the Holocaust, and their aftermath that succeeds in feeling fully, intimately human. . . . [The plot] twist is not what makes The Safekeep remarkable; what does is the extraordinary, emotional story Van der Wouden crafts around it, and the pitch-perfect voice she brings to the characters who experience its consequences." -Talya Zax, The Washington Post

"Quietly remarkable. . . . Van der Wouden's writing is fine and taut. She lasers in on details, and presents unsentimental and intrinsically powerful metaphors. . . . I would have liked this book in any case, just for the pleasure of reading it. But the story is resolved in such a bold and tender way that it becomes not merely clever, but indelible." -Lori Soderlind, The New York Times Book Review

"A brave and thrilling debut about facing up to the truth of history, and to one's own desires. . . . The tightly controlled narrative breaks open into a tale of erotic awakening, followed by an almighty twist. Anticipating that twist will not lessen its impact-fittingly enough for a novel in which everyone knows more than they can bear to admit. van der Wouden brings stunning power and control to her page-turner about trauma and repression." -The Guardian

"A razor-sharp, perfectly plotted debut novel. . . . This book is worth your time and your patience." -Sunday Times

"A compelling and atmospheric story of obsession and secrets. A novel that explores the things that are kept from us as children and the things we tell ourselves about our own hidden desires." -The Booker Prize Judges' citation

"An absolutely stunning novel. . . . The writing is completely beautiful; the plot is brilliant. . . . What seems as a quiet story at the beginning reaches a turning point. . . . Everything is up for grabs. . . . A page-turner." -WAMC

"By turns erotic, heartbreaking, and incandescent in its outrage on behalf of the invisible victims of a cataclysm that reverberated for decades after the peace treaties were signed, The Safekeep packs an emotional wallop that is matched by its moral urgency." -TIME, "100 Must-Read Books of the Year"

"A brilliantly executed twist elevates this love story into something much darker." -The Times (UK), "The Best 12 Books of the Year"

"Unexpected and extraordinary." -Bethanne Patrick, Los Angeles Times

"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." -Kirkus Reviews, starred review

"Ms. van der Wouden knows how to wring real emotion from her readers, and The Safekeep is the uncommon book that one experiences in an almost physical way." -Sam Sacks, The Wall Street Journal

"This is an intimate novel, closely and brilliantly observed. . . . An accomplished debut." -New York Journal of Books

"[A] simmering, sexy work." -Parade

"Fans of Patricia Highsmith and Ottessa Moshfegh's Eileen will find much to admire here. Recommended for reading outdoors while eating a ripe pear." -New York Magazine