Episode 02: Yael van der Wouden
On Rage, Desire, and Magic
Yael van der Wouden’s Five Books:
Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer
The Ministry of Special Cases by Nathan Englander and Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik
In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado
The Artist by Lucy Steeds (to be released early 2025)
The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden
The Five Books has the advisory and promotional support of the Jewish Book Council. Jewish Book Council is a nonprofit dedicated to amplifying and celebrating Jewish literature and supporting authors and readers. Stay up to date on the latest in Jewish literature! https://www.jewishbookcouncil.org/events/celebrate
The Five Books is fiscally sponsored by FJC, a 501c3 public charity.
Hosted by Tali Rosenblatt Cohen
Produced by Odelia Rubin
Artwork by Dena Friedman
Music by Dov Rosenblatt and Blue Dot Sessions.
It is 1961 and the rural Dutch province of Overijssel is quiet. Living alone in her late mother’s country home, Isabel knows her life is as it should be—led by routine and discipline. But all is upended when her brother Louis brings his graceless new girlfriend Eva, leaving her at Isabel’s doorstep as a guest, to stay for the season.
Mysterious, sophisticated, sensual, The Safekeep is “a brave and thrilling debut about facing up to the truth of history, and to one’s own desires” (The Guardian). (Simon and Schuster)
Yael memorably reflects on the mouse that helped her to make friends, her gravitation toward magic, the book that convinced her not to get a nose job, and the nature of complicity, trauma and reconciliation.
In January 2025, Yael van der Wouden’s book The Safekeep won the Jewish Book Council’s Goldberg Prize for Debut Fiction.
