Yael van der Wouden talks to Tracy Chevalier

Booker-longlisted debut novelist Yael van der Wouden talks to bestselling author Tracy Chevalier (Girl With a Pearl Earring) about twisted desire, histories and homes in The Safekeep.

Fifteen years after the Second World War, and Isabel has built herself a solitary life of discipline and strict routine in her late mother’s country home, with not a fork or a word out of place. 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… In the sweltering heat of summer, Isabel’s desperate need for control reaches boiling point. What happens between the two women leads to a revelation which threatens to unravel all she has ever known.