Dutch Debut Novelist Bags 30th Women’s Prize For Fiction

Dutch debut novelist Yael van der Wouden has won the 30th Women’s Prize for Fiction with The Safekeep. The news was revealed at a ceremony in central London yesterday evening (12 June), along with the winner of the second annual Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction, Rachel Clarke for The Story of a Heart.

At the ceremony, Bernadine Evaristo was also awarded the previously-announced Outstanding Contribution Award, bestowed to recognise her decades-long career at the forefront of literature, coinciding with the Women’s Prize’s 30th anniversary.

Published by Viking, an imprint of Penguin Random House, The Safekeep is set 15 years after WWII in van der Wouden’s homeland of the Netherlands. In the rural Dutch province of Overijssel, bomb craters have been filled, and a quiet has settled over the town. But nowhere is quieter than the countryside home of Isabel, where our protagonist lives alone by routine and discipline in the shadow of her late mother. But all is upended when Isabel’s brother Louis delivers his graceless new girlfriend, Eva, at her doorstep. Isabel’s antithesis, Eva is here for the sweltering summer, triggering a fury fuelled obsession in the solitary Isabel.

It’s ‘a masterful blend of history, suspense and historical authenticity,’ says chair of judges Kit de Waal. ‘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,’ de Waal adds, ‘with beautifully rendered intimate scenes written with delicacy and compelling eroticism. This astonishing debut is a classic in the making, a story to be loved and appreciated for generations to come. Books like this don’t come along every day.’

The Safekeep was previously shortlisted for the 2024 Booker Prize, which was won by Samantha Harvey for her literary sci-fi novella, Orbital. For winning the Women’s Prize for Fiction, van der Wouden will receive £30,000 and the iconic ‘Bessie’ statuette.

Here’s a look back at the Women’s Prize for Fiction’s 2025 shortlist, longlist and more.

MORE: Who Is Yael van der Wouden? Introducing The 2025 Women’s Prize Winner

The Women’s Prize Fiction 2025 Shortlistees

Who’s On The 2025 Women’s Prize Shortlist?

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

‘Over the past three decades the Women’s Prize for Fiction has celebrated imaginative, accomplished novels year after year, and in doing so has helped change the landscape for fiction writing in the UK,’ de Waal says on the shortlist. ‘Over the past six months, my fellow judges and I have been knee-deep in reading our submissions, consumed by the fully-realised worlds created by an incredible range of voices.

‘Now that we arrive at the announcement of our shortlist, what seems absolutely apparent to me is how perfectly each of these six novels exemplify the original tenets of the Prize: originality, accessibility and sheer brilliance,’ de Waal continues. ‘Our selection celebrates rich, multi-layered narratives that will surprise, move and delight the reader, all drawing on, in different ways, the importance of human connection. What is surprising and refreshing is to see so much humour, nuance and lightness employed by these novelists to shed light on challenging concepts. I’m in no doubt that these six novels will become the classics of the future.’

Of the six authors, three are American, one is British, one German and one Dutch-Israeli. Four of the six shortlisted novelists are commended for their debut work: Aria Aber, Sanam Mahloudji, Yael van der Wouden and Nussaibah Younis. On the flipside, Elizabeth Strout is practically prolific, Tell Me Everything being her tenth novel and second Women’s Prize shortlisting; two of her previous novels made it onto the longlist. All Fours is Miranda July’s second publication after a short story collection.

On the flipside, who at first seemed the stiffest competition has fallen out of the race: world-famous best-selling author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Her latest work, Dream Count, is her first publication in a decade and made it onto the Women’s Prize longlist, but the pandemic-set novel has not impressed the judges to the same extent as her previous works. Purple Hibiscus made the shortlist in 2004, as did Americanah in 2014, while Half of a Yellow Sun won the prize in between those two shortlistings in 2007. Better still, Half of a Yellow Sun won the Prize’s 25th anniversary poll, named the ‘Winner of Winners’ by fans in 2020. That said, all four of Adichie’s novels have been recognised by the Women’s Prize for Fiction, and that’s surely an achievement in itself.

The shortlist will now be narrowed down to one winner, who will be revealed at a ceremony in central London on Thursday 12 June 2025, along with the winner of the Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction. The winner will receive a £30,000 cheque and a trophy.

Who Was On The Longlist?

• Good Girl by Aria Aber (shortlisted)
• The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley
• Somewhere Else by Jenni Daiches
• Amma by Saraid de Silva
• Crooked Seeds by Karen Jennings
• All Fours by Miranda July (shortlisted)
• The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami
• The Persians by Sanam Maloudji (shortlisted)
• Dream Count by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
• Nesting by Roisín O’Donnell
• A Little Trickerie by Rosanna Pike
• Birding by Rose Ruane
• The Artist by Lucy Steeds
• Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout (shortlisted)
• The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden (shortlisted)
• Fundamentally by Nussaibah Younis (shortlisted)

Of the 16 authors, six are British, three are American, and there is one Moroccan-American, one German, one Dutch-Israeli, one Irish, one New Zealander, one Nigerian and one South African. The qualifying publication period for 2025 is 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025. Last year, V. V. Ganeshananthan won with her novel Brotherless Night which depicts the Sri Lankan civil war.

Of the 16 longlisted novels, nine were debuts and two sophomore novels. Laila Lalami was previously longlisted in 2010 with Secret Son, and again, she didn’t make it to the shortlist.

‘I’m thrilled to announce the longlist for the 30th Women’s Prize for Fiction,’ de Waal said when the longlist was announced. ‘It has been an absolute honour to be immersed in so many utterly exhilarating and hugely imaginative books during the reading process. There were many lively debates on the judging panel over the final 16 books and it was a very close-run thing, but the list we have revealed today is overflowing with compelling stories, and writing that demonstrates passion, wit and empathy.’

On the judging panel, de Waal is joined by novelist and journalist Diana Evans, author, journalist and mental health campaigner Bryony Gordon, magazine editor Deborah Joseph and musician Amelia Warner.

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