kun oma on jo jonkun toisen

Yael van der Wouden: The Safekeep. 2024. 

Yael van der Wouden on hollantilainen kirjailija. Hänen ensimmäinen romaaninsa The Safekeep valittiin vuoden 2024 Booker-palkinnon ehdokkaaksi, ja vuonna 2025 hän voitti naisten kaunokirjallisuuden palkinnon. tämän verran tiesin, kun aloin lukemaan tätä kovin palkittua ”historiallista” romaania (ja jos et jaksa lukea tuota Goodreadisiin kirjoittamaani englanninkileistä, niin sanon jo nyt, että tämä teos oli viiden tähden teos, yllättävä, upea, juonenkäänteineen täyteläisine henkilöhahmoine, ajankuvineen, historianhavinassaan). 

I had no idea what I was getting into when reading this book. Or, that is not totally correct since I had chosen it because of it´s merits: shortlisted 2024 Booker Prize, Winner of the 2025 Women´s Prize for fiction and also Winner of the National Jewish Book Award for debut fiction… and what a debut it was and what a fiction it was! The more I read the more I loved it and got blown away for the layers and the story, the real story, under the main story, the one I was reading, the full and round characters, the period, the sharp writing. The story, the book, kept evolving and changing and taking me with it and flying me the to a direction I could not have anticipated. 

And oh yes - I do not remember when I have read last time a book that would have been as well loaded with sexual tension and acts of love/lovemaking. Sooooo much. But because of that or despite of that I realised I have not read a book for some time which had such a powerful story, a true pageturner. 

The story is based in Netherlands in the early years of 1960´s, after the WW2, after all the horrors and with the takings from that horrid times, horrid actions. Yet still: this is a novel about siblings and the relationships between lesbians and gay men, about romance. 

And for me, who at the forst part of the book that this is a basic historian novel, about sisters, about life after war, and in the middle of the book, about lesbian lovers, and the last part of the book, about the horros of war, the turning of the head, the blind eye, the losing, the hope, the ignorance, the longing, the love. The try to do right.
This was a full five star out of five star read for me.