Many thanks to my friends at @avidreaderpress and @simon.audio for the free #gifted copy of this read.  

Shortlisted for the Booker Prize, The Safekeep is an impressive historical fiction debut.  

Set more than a decade after the end of World War II, this remarkable tale explores the lasting effects of war’s trauma and questions what it means to be complicit in its crimes.  

Isabel lives a lonely and repressed existence in the family home.  She is rigid and difficult and fixated on the past.  Eva is Louis’ latest girlfriend.  She is gaudy and vivacious and the antithesis of Isabel.  The storyline unfolds during one fraught summer when Eva and Isabel must live under the same roof.  Not only does Eva disrupt Isabel’s regimented existence, but she also forces her to reexamine her life and family.   

At the onset, the house—the safekeep itself—appeared as a mere residence safely guarding the contents and people within.  But as the storyline progressed, the house became integral to the plot.  Afterall, it alone had witnessed the fullness of this history and readily safeguarded all the precious secrets.  Tension radiated from the walls granting a sentient quality to the residence that oozed atmosphere throughout the narrative.  

Isabel struggled to reckon with the changes within her own house.  And yet, it was a transformative experience.  As though a flower blooming for the first time, Isobel’s discovery of self and desire awakened something within, catapulting her future in new directions. And as the connection between Isabel and Eva unfolded, the most important reckoning of the story was unveiled:  one of revenge and/or possible redemption.  

🎧This audiobook is primarily narrated by the talented Stina Nielsen.  She well showcased the vast range of emotions and easily breathed life into both characters with distinction. One of my favorites, Saskia Maarleveld reads the diary entries in the last section with powerful precision and well-honed the bottled-up anger that had been left to simmer throughout the years.