The author of The Safekeep, shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2024, talks about reimagining personal and national narratives, and the book from last year’s Booker shortlist that she can’t get out of her head
Yael van der Wouden
Yael van der Wouden is a writer and teacher
She currently lectures in creative writing and comparative literature in the Netherlands. Her essay on Dutch identity and Jewishness, ‘On (Not) Reading Anne Frank’, received a notable mention in The Best American Essays 2018. Her writing has appeared in LitHub, Electric Literature, The Offing and Elle.com, amongst others. The Safekeep is her debut novel and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2024.
A remarkable debut about obsession and loss. The author draws us into a world as carefully calibrated as a Dutch still-life
The 2024 judges on The Safekeep
A Q&A with Yael van Der Wouden
Watch our film
All nominated books
An exhilarating tale of twisted desire, histories and homes – and the legacy of one of the 20th century’s greatest tragedies
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