Travel Bug Coffee Shop

Tuesday September 30th at 5:30pm
Everyone welcome!

Yael van der Wouden's
The Safekeep

Set in the Netherlands after the war, The Safekeep is a compelling tale of obsession and secrets, exploring the stories that are kept from us as children, and the stories that we tell to ourselves about our own hidden desires. Fifteen years from the end of the Second World War and the rural Dutch province of Overijssel is quiet. Bomb craters have been filled, buildings reconstructed, and the conflict is well and truly over. Isabel lives alone in her late mother's country home, and her life is 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: she sleeps late, wakes late, walks loudly through the house and touches things she shouldn't. In response, Isabel develops a fury-fueled obsession, and when things start disappearing around the house her suspicions spiral out of control. In the sweltering heat of summer, Isabel's desperate desire for order transforms into infatuation – leading to a discovery that unravels all she has ever known. The war might not be well and truly over after all, and neither Eva – nor the house – are what they seem.

Mysterious, sophisticated, sensual, and infused with intrigue, The Safekeep is "a brave and thrilling debut about facing up to the truth of history, and to one's own desires" —The Guardian

Shortlisted for the 2024 Booker Prize • Winner of the 2025 Women's Prize for Fiction • 2025 Dylan Thomas Prize and Aspen Words Literary Prize

A Best Book of 2024: The New York Times, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Time, The Economist, The Globe and Mail (Toronto), Kirkus Reviews, The Independent, BookPage, The Sunday Times (London)

"Remarkable...Compelling...Fine and taut...Indelible." —The New York Times • "Moving, unnerving, and deeply sexy." —Tracy Chevalier, author of Girl with the Pearl Earring • "A brilliant debut, as multi-faceted as a gem." —Kirkus Reviews

Yael van der Wouden lectures in creative writing and comparative literature in the Netherlands. Her writing has appeared in LitHub, Electric Literature, The Offing and Elle.com, among other places. She has also written an online advice column, Dear David, in which she answers people problems as a fictional Sir David Attenborough. The Safekeep is her first novel.

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