UU graduate Yael van der Wouden on Booker Prize shortlist

The Dutch-Israeli writer made her debut this year with The Safekeep, a novel about two women staying in the same house in the Dutch countryside during the summer of 1961. The book explores the legacy of World War II. 

Van der Wouden is the first Dutch citizen to be shortlisted for a Booker Prize as the best novel written in English.

The judges describe The Safekeep as "a compelling and atmospheric story of obsession and secrets. It’s a novel that explores the things that are kept from us as children, and the things we tell ourselves about our own hidden desires." 

Holocaust
The jury also wrote that The Safekeep is a "quietly devastating queer love story which reveals itself to be a story of the Holocaust. It shows how alternate truths are held in fissile connection, something that is relevant to today’s world."

The book is set in post-war Overijssel. The protagonist, Isabel, lives in her late mother's house. Suddenly, her brother arrives with his new girlfriend, Eva, and the peace is disturbed. Little things such as a spoon, a knife, or a bowl start disappearing from the house.

A writer from Utrecht
Yael van der Wouden studied Literature at Utrecht University (UU) from 2009 to 2012. She also studied at Suny Binghamton in New York. She taught writing courses at UU and Parnassos. As a student, she worked as an editor for the literary magazine Frame, which is produced by UU students and alumni. She lives on Oudegracht.

The Booker Prize is the biggest literary award for English fiction. Previous winners include Iris Murdoch (1978), Salman Rushdie (1981), Kazuo Ishiguro (1989), Margaret Atwood (2000 and 2019) and Bernardine Evaristo (2019). In 2020, Dutch writer Lucas Rijneveld was the first Dutch person to receive the International Booker Prize, an award for best fiction translated into English, with his book The Discomfort of Evening. 

The winner of the 2024 Booker Prize will be announced on Tuesday, November 12, in London, and the ceremony will be broadcast on BBC Radio 4, among other channels. The winner will receive 50,000 dollars as well as the Iris trophy, named after Booker Prize winner Iris Murdoch.