Yael Van Der Wouden The Safekeep 2025 Penguin Books, Limited 2025

Synopsis

<p><b>WINNER OF THE WOMEN'S PRIZE 2025<br> SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2024</b><br> <b>SHORTLISTED FOR THE DYLAN THOMAS PRIZE 2025<br> LONGLISTED FOR THE WINGATE PRIZE 2025<br> <br> An exhilarating tale of twisted desire, histories and homes, and the unexpected shape of revenge - for readers of Patricia Highsmith, Sarah Waters and Ian McEwan's <i>Atonement</i>.</b><br> <br> It is fifteen years after the Second World War, and Isabel has built herself a solitary life of discipline and strict routine in her late mother's country home, with not a fork or a word out of place. But all is upended when her brother Louis delivers his graceless new girlfriend, Eva, at Isabel's doorstep - as a guest, there to stay for the season...<br> <br> In the sweltering heat of summer, Isabel's desperate need for control reaches boiling point. What happens between the two women leads to a revelation which threatens to unravel all she has ever known.<br> <br> <b>'A thrilling, razor-sharp, perfectly plotted debut novel'</b> <i>Sunday Times</i><br> <br> <b>'Moving, unnerving and deeply sexy'</b> Tracy Chevalier, bestselling author of <i>GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING</i><br> <br> <b>'A brave and thrilling debut about facing up to the truth of history, and to one's own desires... Van der Wouden brings stunning power and control to her page-turner about trauma and repression'</b> Justine Jordan, Booker Prize Judge 2024</p>