Book Review: The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden

For reasons I can’t quite explain, The Safekeep has been on my mind ever since I first saw this beautiful cover. And yet I never once thought to maybe buy it, read it, find out what it is between those covers — until recently, that is. I’m not sure what compelled me, but I finally read this novel, and I have thoughts, as always. 

The Safekeep opens with its main character, Isabel, working in the garden. While digging, she finds a broken piece of ceramic that looks like it belongs to a set of tableware her mother loved. But the problem is, she knows that all the plates and bowls are accounted for, since she keeps them locked in her vitrine, and takes very good care of them. She can’t even remember any plates getting broken when she was young. And so begins our mystery.

That is, perhaps, not much of one, considering that the synopsis apparently revealed it all, but I rarely read these anyway. It’s much nicer to go into a book knowing nothing about it. Even so, it’s pretty easy to guess how this mystery will resolve, and yet it’s interesting to watch it all happen just to see the how of it. 

Isabel pops off the page immediately, in full technicolor. She’s a difficult person to like and would be insufferable in real life, but as a character, she is very refreshing to follow. Combined with sublime prose, the first part of the book was set up so beautifully that I was sure this book would be one of my favorites. 

We get introduced to a host of interesting characters pretty quickly — Isabel’s two brothers, and her older brother’s new girlfriend, Eva. And Eva too seemed compelling in her shifting nature; from a bumbling, pretty fool, to an actual person. I wanted to learn more about her as well.

Plus, the setting was fantastic — this much-loved house with its pristine interior and the nature around it, it sounded utterly beautiful. 

But (isn’t there always one?), then part two of this novel happened. 

And everything I loved about the first part sort of fizzled out. Isabel became obsessed with Eva (not in a fun way — well, not for me) and it was just one intimate scene on top of another; Isabel pushing Eva against walls and into beds and furniture, Eva giving in. Everything that made Isabel a fun character disappeared. 

The biggest sin of it all was that I saw no relationship development. Why did Eva and Isabel like each other? What made them fall in love? Attraction is one thing, and it’s perfectly understandable to perhaps behave this way when you just uncover your sexuality, but if the author wanted me to believe in the love, the romance, then this couple needed more. 

Common interests, longer conversations about quite literally anything, moments of noticing things about each other that other people might not, even each other’s looks. Anything!

Instead, they go from complete annoyance and ire to jumping into bed whenever opportunity arises, which is all the time because they live alone. 

I find that the book does recover in part 3 and gets back to its roots of good character writing. But by this point you just want it to be done and over with. Still, I enjoyed the way Eva’s journal was written and how angry she seems in it — if only we’ve seen more of that on the surface. It’s unfortunate that Eva serves more as a submissive catalyst for Isabel’s journey rather than ever becoming her own character. 

All in all, I adored the prose in this book. It’s super well-written, incisive and atmospheric. If only for that, I enjoyed The Safekeep. And as mentioned, Isabel was well-worth following around; I would have read a book just about her ordinary life without the plot we had. I’m excited to read whatever this author writes next because this was only a debut and it did so well. And hey, The Safekeep was longlisted for the Booker Prize, which likely means I’m wrong about all of the above and this is a fantastic book for a different reader (you, perhaps). It didn’t quite become my new favorite, but it’s definitely one that will linger in my mind for months to come. 

Like this book? Get it here.