March Book Club - The Safekeep

It’s here. Our first Book Club book is The Safekeep, debut novel by Yael Van Der Wouden.

Date: Tuesday, 25 March Time: 7pm-9pm

Venue: The Ocean Grove Surf Life Saving Club, 28 Surf Beach Road, Ocean Grove

Cost: $50 ticket

Your ticket includes: 

• Shared Grazing Boards
• Open Bar from 7-8  *drinks at Bar Prices after that
• A fun, structured, bookish night on a table with awesome, like-minded humans
• Discussion questions provided, with Connie, Georgia and Ash facilitating group chats
• A juicy Panel discussion about The Safekeep
• An entry ticket for our door prize

What The Book Club Social said – Shortlisted for the Booker Prize this book is equal parts quiet contemplation, obsession and maddening electric charge. It explores the fight for place and belonging post-world war two, the complexities of sibling relationships and what being queer means in a time when these desires remain unspoken. The Safekeep is so artfully written it’s hard to believe it’s a debut novel and I couldn’t put it down. It made me contemplate the role shame has in shaping us and the steps we sometimes take to hide who we truly are. A rhythmic meditation, The Safekeep shocked me awake, it was dark and sexy and compulsively readable. ~ Ashlea

Synopsis

“Fifteen years from the end of the Second World War, the rural Dutch province of Overijssel is quiet. Bomb craters have been filled, buildings reconstructed, and the conflict is well and truly over. Isabel lives alone in her late mother’s country home, and her life is led by routine and discipline. But all is upended when her brother Louis delivers his graceless new girlfriend, Eva, at Isabel’s doorstep as a guest, there to stay for the season…

Eva is Isabel’s antithesis: she sleeps late, wakes late, walks loudly through the house and touches things she shouldn’t. In response, Isabel develops a fury-fuelled obsession, and when things start disappearing around the house her suspicions spiral out of control. In the sweltering heat of summer, Isabel’s desperate desire for order transforms into infatuation – leading to a discovery that unravels all she has ever known. The war might not be well and truly over after all, and neither Eva – nor the house – are what they seem.”