The Safekeep

It is 1961 in the rural Dutch province of Overijssel. Isabel lives alone in her late mother's country home, maintaining a life of routine and discipline. When her brother Louis leaves his new girlfriend Eva at the house for the season, Isabel's carefully ordered existence is disrupted. Eva is Isabel's opposite—she sleeps late, moves loudly through the house, and touches things without permission. Isabel becomes obsessed with Eva, and when objects begin disappearing from the house—a spoon, a knife, a bowl—her suspicions intensify. As summer heat peaks, Isabel's paranoia transforms into infatuation, leading to a discovery that changes everything she thought she knew. The war, officially over since the bombs were cleared and buildings rebuilt, may not be truly finished. Neither Eva nor the house itself are what they appear to be. The novel explores desire, suspicion, and obsession between two women, while examining the legacy of World War II and darker aspects of the past.