The Safekeep

by Yael van der Wouden (Viking, £16.99)

V A claustrophobic tale of an unwanted guest, a potentially agoraphobic host and a crumbling family home in a rural postwar Dutch village may not sound like an ideal beach read, but van der Wouden’s debut will stay with you long after the sun goes down. What starts of as a fish-out-of-water tale of two women, diametrically opposed in their personalities and relationships, becomes a story of passion and need, with a late-stage twist that reframes everything that has gone before. Gorgeously written and exquisitely crafted, this is literary fiction at its most accessible
and important.