The Safekeep
The Netherlands in the spring of 1961. Isabel Den Brave, aged 30, lives alone in her deceased parents’ house in Zwolle in the east of the country. She is single, spiky and rather eccentric. When her brother Louis’ girlfriend Eva is dumped on her to stay for a month while Louis is working abroad, matters begin to get complicated for Isabel. And the narrative moves in a direction that this reader had not anticipated.
From the opening pages of the book, the author makes it clear that there is a back-story to Isabel’s tenancy of the house, which her family initially occupied during the Second World War. This is only developed towards the end of the story, and perhaps could be anticipated from hints provided by Van der Wouden, but nonetheless does not make the account any the less disturbing. The story is carefully observed, picking at the minutiae of human behaviour and the mundane experience and small constant challenges and minor pleasures of living from day to day. The historical context initially is light – Netherlands is a provincial country still recovering from the occupation by Germany in the War that ended just 15 years ago, but one that is slowly emerging into the recognisable modernity that swept through west Europe in the 1960s. But the backstory from the war brings to the fore some very dark events that further complicate the plot as well as the conventional narrative that the Netherlands has about its role as victim of German aggression. This is an admirable, engaging and intelligent story from a talented author.
