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'Masterful' romance novel wins Women's Prize for Fiction

Steven McIntosh
Entertainment reporter
Getty Images Yael van der Wouden, author of 'The Safekeep', during the Booker Prize 2024 Shortlist photocall at The Royal Festival Hall on November 11, 2024 in London, EnglandGetty Images
Yael van der Wouden's novel The Safekeep was also shortlisted for the Booker Prize last year

This year's Women's Prize for Fiction has been awarded to Dutch author Yael van der Wouden for The Safekeep, a novel about an unlikely romance in the Netherlands in the 1960s.

The judges called the book an "astonishing debut... a masterful blend of history, suspense and historical authenticity".

The story follows a reclusive woman whose brother asks if his girlfriend can move in with her for the summer. Initially repulsed by her new housemate, a closer relationship gradually develops between the two women.

The Women's Prize for Non-Fiction, meanwhile, went to Dr Rachel Clarke for The Story of a Heart, an exploration of two families on either side of an organ donation.

The winners were announced at a ceremony in London on Thursday, and will receive £30,000 each.

Author Kit de Waal, chair of judges for the fiction award, described The Safekeep as a "classic in the making" which would be "loved and appreciated for generations to come".

"Books like this don't come along every day," she said. "Every word is perfectly placed, page after page revealing an aspect of war and the Holocaust that has been, until now, mostly unexplored in fiction.

"It is also a love story with beautifully rendered intimate scenes written with delicacy and compelling eroticism."

Getty Images British writer and physician Rachel Clarke attends the 2024 Edinburgh International Book Festival on August 19, 2024 in Edinburgh, ScotlandGetty Images
The judges said Dr Rachel Clarke's book about organ donation "left a deep and long-lasting impression" on the panel

The Story of a Heart, which won the non-fiction prize, focuses on two family stories involved in organ donation.

It follows the family of a nine-year-old girl named Kiera who dies an a car accident, and a nine-year-old boy, Max, who faces heart failure due to a viral infection.

The book depicts the expertise and dedication of the medical staff who look after Kiera in her final hours, and use her organs to offer Max a new life.

Kavita Puri, chair of judges for the non-fiction prize, said it had "left a deep and long-lasting impression" on the panel.

"Clarke's writing is authoritative, beautiful and compassionate. The research is meticulous, and the storytelling is expertly crafted," she said.

"She holds this precious story with great care and tells it with dignity, interweaving the history of transplant surgery seamlessly."

The book, Dr Clarke's fourth, was adapted into an ITV series in 2024.

Women's Prize for Fiction shortlist

  • Good Girl by Aria Aber
  • All Fours by Miranda July
  • The Persians by Sanam Mahloudji
  • Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout
  • The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden
  • Fundamentally by Nussaibah Younis

Women's Prize for Non-Fiction shortlist

  • A Thousand Threads by Neneh Cherry
  • The Story of a Heart: Two Families, One Hart, and a Medical Miracle by Rachel Clarke
  • Raising Hare by Chloe Dalton
  • Agent Zo: The Untold Story of a Fearless World War II Resistance Fighter by Clare Mulley
  • What the Wild Sea Can Be: The Future of the World's Ocean by Helen Scales
  • Private Revolutions: Four Women Face China's New Social Order by Yuan Yang