The Safekeep

The Safekeep (2024) is a historical fiction novel by Yael van der Wouden that is set in the eastern Netherlands during the 1960s. It follows Isabel, a 28-year-old woman who lives in her deceased mother’s home, and her obsessive relationship with Eva, her eldest brother’s girlfriend, who comes to visit the house one summer. The Safekeep was shortlisted for the 2024 Booker Prize. It follows the author’s award-winning essay “On (Not) Reading Anne Frank” and builds on some of that essay’s explorations of Dutch Jewish identity, femininity, and memory.

This guide refers to the 2024 Viking hardcover edition.

Content Warning: The source text and this guide discuss anti-gay bias, racism, xenophobia, antisemitism, sexual assault, and genocide.

Plot Summary

In the eastern Dutch city of Zwolle, during the spring of 1961, Isabel lives in her family’s large home, which they moved into in the middle of World War II when she was young. She spends her days caring for the house and garden, meticulously keeping track of her late mother’s favorite objects, which she is convinced someone is trying to steal. Isabel has an older brother named Louis and a younger brother named Hendrik, both of whom grew up with her in the house but left as young adults. 

Despite Isabel being the primary resident and caretaker of the home, Louis is set to inherit it as soon as he decides to marry and have children. At age 28, with no serious marriage or career prospects, Isabel is dependent on her ability to stay in the house indefinitely and is deeply emotionally attached to it. Fortunately for her, Louis seems completely uninterested in settling down in Zwolle; he lives in The Hague and dates many women, none of whom have become permanent fixtures in his life. Isabel and Heinrich have both grown tired of Louis inviting them to meet various new girlfriends whom Louis is ultimately not serious about.

Louis invites Hendrik and Isabel to come to dinner in The Hague to meet yet another girlfriend, this time a woman named Eva whom he claims to be serious about. Apprehensive as usual, Isabel is unimpressed with Eva’s appearance and demeanor. Eva’s hair is bleached blonde with visibly dark roots, and she speaks in an overly effusive, saccharine manner that Isabel perceives as disingenuous. After she excuses herself to use the restroom, Eva follows her. The two have a confrontation where Eva speaks and behaves with entirely different mannerisms. Isabel is convinced that Eva is hiding something, but Hendrik is dismissive when she tries to voice her concerns.

A week after the dinner, Louis calls Isabel at the house in Zwolle to ask if Eva can come to stay with her for a month while he is away on a business trip. Isabel is incredulous about the request, wondering why Eva cannot stay with friends or family. Louis insists that she has nobody else to stay with and that this is the best course of action. Since Isabel does not own the home, she has no choice but to oblige him. 

When Eva arrives, she quickly moves into Isabel’s mother’s bedroom, which irritates Isabel. When Isabel asks her to move to one of the house’s many other bedrooms, Eva refuses. Tensions between the two women begin to escalate immediately, and Isabel begins to notice that things are going missing from the house. She keeps a meticulous inventory of every object, noting when items disappear. Eva insists that she is not stealing anything, and so does Neelke, the maid.

After weeks of tension building between Isabel and Eva, the two women begin having an affair. The romance starts after Isabel has an uncomfortable date with Johan, a man who has been insistently pursuing her but whose attention makes her feel nauseous. When Eva realizes that Isabel is uninterested in kissing Johan, she jokingly kisses Isabel to demonstrate how insignificant kisses are, but this kiss escalates into a serious romantic encounter. The affair is intense and secretive. Isabel begins to forget about her inventory and the stolen objects. However, with Louis’s arrival imminent, Eva begins pushing Isabel to take Johan’s courtship seriously. Isabel is hurt by Eva’s conviction that once Louis comes back, the affair will have to end because a future with Isabel would offer her no sense of security.

The night before he is set to return, Louis calls the house. He tells Isabel that he has met another woman on his business trip and that he wants her to break up with Eva for him. When Isabel conveys that Louis has been unfaithful to Eva, Eva is unbothered and insists that Louis will be there to pick her up the next day. As she begins to pack up her things, another argument turned sexual encounter occurs between the two women. 

In the morning, Isabel finds Eva’s journal on the ground and opens it out of curiosity. Inside is an inventory of objects in the house, with all the things that have gone missing crossed out. Isabel calls Eva a thief and kicks her out of the house. Eva tells her that she will never get the things back and that they were never intended for Isabel in the first place. Having kept the journal as potential evidence to show the police, Isabel eventually decides to read the whole thing.

The first chapter of Part 3 takes the form of Eva’s diary. It reveals that she is Jewish and survived the Holocaust as a child. Her father was killed in a concentration camp. When she and her mother returned home after the war, they discovered that the bank reclaimed the house when the family stopped paying the mortgage. Eva fantasizes about returning to the house and reclaiming everything that was taken from her family. She learns the name of the family that owns the house and begins forming a plan to go back and quietly reclaim all the objects she is missing. She bleaches her hair and flirts with Louis at a party. When their relationship grows serious, she asks him if she can stay with Isabel in the house. She finds Isabel to be cruel and is completely caught off guard when the affair starts.

Having read the journal, Isabel is overwhelmed with guilt. She gathers together all the things that Eva has not yet reclaimed. She then goes to confront her uncle Karel about how he acquired the house during the war. Karel is defensive, even though Isabel does not make any explicit accusations. She tells him that she wants to inherit the house and that Louis will agree to this plan. 

After convincing Louis that she will never marry, implying that she is a lesbian, the legal process of ensuring the house is hers begins. She goes to find Eva in Amsterdam, asking her to come back to the house. Eva is suspicious but eventually returns. Isabel offers her all the things she has yet to reclaim and the house itself. She clarifies that the offer is not contingent on their being together but that she is still in love with Eva. Eva and Isabel stay in the house together, and the novel ends with a scene of them embracing on a snowy morning.