Yael van der Wouden on sex, history and an incredible year

For this Easter special an opportunity to revisit Yael van der Wouden the 2025 Women's Prize for Fiction (womensprize.com/library/the-safekeep)winner.
Her celebrated debut The Safekeep also made the 2024 Booker Prize (thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/prize-y…) shortlist. The Safekeep (penguin.com.au/books/the-safekeep-9780241999776) is set in the Netherlands, 15 years after the end of World War II and is about an uptight woman, an unpredictable house guest, loneliness, repression and desire. The novel confronts the prevailing narrative about the Dutch experience of World War II and its treatment of Jewish people.
Claire Nichols spoke to Yael at the Sydney Writers Festival (swf.org.au) in 2025
This conversation was first broadcast 23 June 2025