Books › The Safekeep
Women's Prize for Fiction 2025
The Safekeep
262 pages
A sweltering, slow-burn psychological drama where repressed desire and the lingering ghosts of history collide in a quiet country house.
What it feels like
Reading this book feels like stepping into a house where the air is thick, still, and suffocatingly hot. It begins as a quiet, meticulously observed study of domestic routine and rigid repression, but slowly tightens its grip, transforming into a feverish psychological drama. The atmosphere is drenched in paranoia and sensual tension, making you feel the protagonist's spiraling obsession with every misplaced spoon and creaking floorboard. The prose is sharp and sensory, perfectly capturing the claustrophobia of a life built on denial. It is a masterful slow-burn that rewards patience, ultimately unraveling into a devastating exploration of historical trauma and queer desire. Fans of Sarah Waters and Daphne du Maurier will devour this tense, atmospheric excavation of the past.
- Mood
- claustrophobic
- sweltering
- paranoid
- sensual
- Tone
- repressed
- observant
- tense
- intimate
- Pace
- steady
- Themes
- repressed desire · legacy of trauma · domestic obsession · illusion of safety · hidden histories
- The writing
- Precise, sensory, and tightly controlled, mirroring the protagonist's rigid exterior before unraveling into feverish intensity.
- The arc
- Moves from rigid, isolated repression through a feverish, paranoid obsession, culminating in a devastating and transformative revelation.
- Who it's for
- Readers who crave slow-burn psychological dramas, queer historical fiction, and stories where quiet domestic spaces hide dark, historical secrets.
Content notes
- Holocaust themes
- antisemitism
- homophobia
- sexual content
- grief and trauma
About the book
An exhilarating, twisted tale of desire, suspicion, and obsession between two women staying in the same house in the Dutch countryside during the summer of 1961—a powerful exploration of the legacy of WWII and the darker parts of our collective past.
A house is a precious thing...
It is 1961 and the rural Dutch province of Overijssel is quiet. Bomb craters have been filled, buildings reconstructed, and the war is truly over. Living alone in her late mother’s country home, Isabel knows her life is as it should be—led by routine and discipline. But all is upended when her brother Louis brings his graceless new girlfriend Eva, leaving her at Isabel’s doorstep as a guest, to stay for the season.
Eva is Isabel’s antithesis: she sleeps 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—a spoon, a knife, a bowl—Isabel’s suspicions begin to spiral. In the sweltering peak of summer, Isabel’s paranoia gives way to infatuation—leading to a discovery that unravels all Isabel has ever known. The war might not be well and truly over after all, and neither Eva—nor the house in which they live—are what they seem.
Description from Open Library.
Books like The Safekeep
See why they match
Night WatchSarah WatersA shadowy, reverse-chronological journey through the illicit loves and quiet tragedies of wartime London.
The paying guestsSarah WatersA masterclass in simmering tension where a quiet domestic drama slowly tightens into a suffocating knot of passion and dread.
Ophelia after AllRacquel MarieA warm, funny, and tender exploration of what happens when the person you thought you were no longer fits the person you are becoming.
Young MungoDouglas StuartA devastatingly tender exploration of queer first love blooming in the cracks of a brutal, hyper-masculine world.
Our Wives Under the SeaJulia ArmfieldA haunting, slow-burn exploration of anticipatory grief wrapped in the eerie, claustrophobic dread of the deep ocean.
Under the Udala treesChinelo OkparantaA tender, sweeping exploration of forbidden love and the heavy cost of living a lie in a fractured world.