Booker Prize review: Desire, suspicion, and obsession comprise the emotional core of ‘The Safekeep’

A house is a precious thing. But what do we really know about the land it stands on, the hands it has passed through before it became yours to have? A house is the most solid, permanent possession one can own. A house, as it goes through seasons and generations, is a reminder of our place in the world. It is a proof of our existence, a tether to what came before us and what will follow, and most importantly, the north star that’ll guide us back to safety and shelter as we go out into the world to create our destinies.

The house

In The Safekeep, author Yael Van Der Wouden takes the reader to the Netherlands countryside where a grand house stands tall and proud even in the years following the aftermath of the Second World War. Boasting many rooms and stuffed with knickknacks of all kinds, the house is now in the sole care of Isabel, a nearly 30-year-old woman. She has been left behind in this house after her mother’s death and her brothers’ departures. One left because their mother did not accept his sexuality while the other is a womaniser and cannot be pinned down to a place.

Though Isabel is in charge...

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