Yael van der Wouden Wants to Touch Everything

In her debut novel, The Safekeep, Yael van der Wouden writes a tense, sensuous, and expertly-plotted tale of two women in post-WWII Netherlands who are thrust into a close-quartered and tempestuous relationship with each other. The novel is at once a historical reconciliation, an empathetic character study, a mystery, and a love story, all delivered in van der Wouden’s impeccably-wrought prose. I read The Safekeep in a few breathless sittings—it’s one of those books that once you begin reading you find any excuse to keep doing so. 

I talked with van der Wouden about complicity, the lure of the tactile, and what makes a good sex scene.   

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Julia May Jonas: I’m firstly interested in your personal literary history—where does this book land in your trajectory of life as a writer?

It’s still a miracle to me that I’ve ended up where I’ve ended up. I wasn’t a big reader as a child, only ended up