The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden with Recipe by Gwen Young
The Author
Born in 1987, Yael van der Wouden spent her early childhood in Tel Aviv.
With a mother of Romanian and Bulgarian heritage and a father of Dutch, they both worked as artists in film and television.
Fun fact, they both worked on an Israel version of sesame street.
As a very young child, ballet was her love, taking classes from the age of three and had a part as a flame in a school talent show.
Although not know as a book liver when small, she did love to invent stories as a way of coping with stress.
The move to the Netherlands, along with her two younger sisters, came when she was ten, the move left the family feeling alienated a theme that would pop up often in future writing along with identity and Dutch history.
When thirteen years old, Yael learned she was intersex, and in later life described herself as "Dutch-Israeli mixed-bag-diaspora child".
She now identifies as a women and uses she/her pronouns.
In later life her studies were in the Netherlands where she studied comparative literature at Utrecht University.
Once she left university, Yael van de Wouden taught creative writing, had essays published and of course, had her first book published, The Safekeeper, Foodie Book Club January choice.
Author Yael van der Wouden
The Book
Published in 2024, The Safekeep was Yaels debut novel and before it even hit the streets, it was part of a bidding war in the UK and US.
As expected, it became a massive success, shortlisted for the 2024 Booker Prize, wining tons of awards including the 2025 Womens Prize.
Set in 1961, the book explores love, history, trauma and follows Isabel who lives in her late parents house fifteen years after the end of world war II in rural Nethelands.
Eva, the girlfriend of one of her brothers, stays for the summer. Eva’s stay leads Isabel to obsess about her which in turn leads to unspoken revelations about history, trauma and with an underlying intense psychological and romantic tension.
Isabel lives alone and isolated, in her dead mother’s house, which was left to one of her brothers (Louis). When his girlfriend, Eva comes to stay, Isabel’s life and routine is turned upside down.
Isabel becomes obsessed with Eva and after a while, they begin an intimate relationship.
The house was acquired by her uncle Karl during WWll for her mother, Isabel and her two brothers Louis and Hendrick.
After the mothers death, Isabel becomes obsessed with the house, dusting cleaning and constantly taking an inventory of the items in the house, convinced that her maid is stealing them.
During her stay, and after making herself at home in Isabel’s mothers bedroom, to the extent she replaces a photo of Isabelle’s mother with one of her own mother, Eva begins to ask lots of questions about the house, its belongings and its ownership.
As the book progresses, it becomes apparent that before Isabelle’s family owned the house, it belonged to Eva and her family. And during the war, Eva and her Jewish family were forcibly abducted from the house, during the holocaust of the Netherlands.
Not to give the ending away, but it had been Evas intention from the beginning, to try to find a way to live in the house that once belonged to her family.
With themes of memory, control and obsession the book has many hidden histories and traumas. It highlights queer desire in a time when the relationships of this nature was unheard of and heavily judged.
January Book and Chef
My Thoughts
Even though I enjoyed the book, I became bored with parts of it fairly quickly, which I always seem to do when things are hyped up to me.
I do like a book where a character isn’t human, in this case the house, and the back history of the house belonging to Evas evicted Jewish family, was something that was a welcome respite from the soft porn of the middle third of the book.
The characters were strong and flawed which made them believable when interacting with each other. The dialogue, well written, flowed making it easy to follow even when it cut back in history.
I would have liked to have known more about the time Evas family had the house and more about a couple of lesser characters, such as the solicitor who acquired the house and what made him choose that one.
I would recommend the book to others, and it was one of those books which I thought I should read, but not one I would revisit.
I give the book a 3 egg rating.
The Chef
Gwen Young gave Foodie Book Club this fabulous recipe during the pandemic for our Lockdown Lunches.
The full recipe is here and if you want to watch Gwen cook it live, click the link for the Foodie Book Club YouTube Chanel.
Fingers crossed the following information is still correct, it’s a repost from the those long forgotten (by many) pandemic times.
I found out about Gwen from “It’s From Scratch” when browsing through instagram. No, not a stalker, just a person with a genuine interest in people, food and finding people who like food.
Don’t forget that you can watch Gwen cook her dish, Hot Cauliflower Curried Dip with Garlic & Coriander Flatbreads, on Foodie Book Clubs YouTube channel.
Gwen wrote this to tell a bit about what she’s up to now and what she has been doing in a previous life
“Having sold her last food business (an organic food delivery scheme) in June 2020 Gwen has created “It's From Scratch Ltd “with a mission to make recipes a reality. She hopes to get everyone cooking by removing ingredient, time and skill barriers. In her last business, Gwen led in-person cooking classes and often gave cooking demos to showcase the use of seasonal vegetables in easy to create, adaptable dishes. Through It’s From Scratch she is recreating those experiences in kitchens up and down the country through her online cookalongs.
Over the winter months of 2020/2021 she combined our yearning for social interaction and international travel to create 2 hour experiences based on the cuisine of a particularly country such as Spain, Palestine or Morocco.
Now that summer is almost here,” It’s From Scratch” are moving focus to tackle another issue, that of feeding a flexitarian household. Gwen’s own household is a ‘mixed economy’ of omnivores, vegetarians and pescatarians and her spring cookalong programme will provide some much needed recipes and inspiration for the many families in a similar situation.
“This will not be an either/or cooking situation” said Gwen “Everyone will create 2 versions of the same dish (one with meat, one without) but the point in the class at which they diverge will appear so effortless it will feel achievable and repeatable for future family meals.” Gwen
Social Media
Gwen Young
The Recipe
Hot Cauliflower Curried Dip with Garlic & Coriander Flatbreads
“The perfect accompaniment to a movie night in or drinks in the garden. This recipe takes advantage of the great flavour combo cauli and Indian spices have going on. It gives guacamole a run for it’s money in the ‘I’m a dip but I’m also one of your five a day’ stakes. Gwen
Ingredients
For the Dip
1 onion
1 small Cauliflower
1 tablespoon curry powder
1 clove of garlic (crushed)
Carton of Coconut Cream
2 -3 tablespoons of Mayonnaise
Salt and pepper
Optional - Mango chutney
For the Flatbreads
200g Self Raising Flour (+ extra for rolling out)
8 tablespoons of Greek Yoghurt
1 Crushed clove of Garlic
1 tablespoon dried coriander leaf
Salt and Pepper
Method
Chop an onion and the Romanesco/cauli up roughly and use a food processor to chop them very finely, then add the garlic
In an oven proof dish, combine the curry powder with the coconut cream and mayonnaise
Stir in the veg, season and bake at 200C for 20 minutes.
While that is cooking
Add the crushed garlic and coriander leaf to the yoghurt and stir
With a wooden spoon and then your hands combine the flour and yoghurt mix to make a dough
Divide into 4 even pieces then press or roll out to 3mm thick
Heat a frying pan and dry fry flatbreads 2 at a time 2 mins on either side. They will brown and puff up. Keep warm while you cook the next 2 flatbreads
You can process the dip again to give a more hummus like texture
You can add a swirl of mango chutney for added interest
