The ten best international novels of 2024 – according to literary experts

The Safekeep, Yael van der Wouden

The Safekeep, a novel about the expropriation and theft of Jewish property during the Second World War, revisits a dark chapter of Dutch history.

Before being deported, Dutch Jews were stripped of their homes and belongings, and forced to flee Amsterdam with what little they could carry. Van der Wouden’s debut novel shines an ironic light on the act of keeping or maintaining things that were to be reclaimed by their rightful owners, but which were lost or stolen in the war.

The trauma of this history hangs over the lives of three siblings grieving the loss of their mother.

Isabel, the novel’s lonely protagonist, lives alone in the family house, keeping it in order as her late mother would have wanted. All the while she suspects that their maid is stealing from the kitchen.

But following the arrival of her brother’s girlfriend, Eva, Isabel discovers the truth about the house and attempts to right historical wrongs.

Orbital, Samantha Harvey

Winner of the Booker prize, Samantha Harvey’s Orbital skilfully exposes the human cost of space flight, set against the urgency of the climate crisis. While a typhoon of life-threatening proportions gathers across south-east Asia, six cosmonauts hurtle around Earth on the International Space Station.

Their everyday routine of tasteless food and laboratory...

Read more