Have you read the Women’s Prizes for fiction and nonfiction?

This year’s Women’s Prize for fiction has been won by Yael van der Wouden’s debut novel ‘The Safekeep’ and the award for nonfiction went to Rachel Clarke for ‘The Story of a Heart’.

‘The Safekeep’ is an exciting story set in The Netherlands in 1960, fifteen years after the end of the second world war. Its plot interweaves a story of desire, history and revenge. The main character, Isabel, leads a life of compulsive obsession in her deceased mother’s house. Her life is turned upside down when her brother visits with his girlfriend, Eva, who stays over for the summer.

The story hinges on the relationship which develops between these two women. Isabel is gentile, Eva is Jewish, and the legacy of the Holocaust in The Netherlands is still very relevant for them both. Fifteen years after WWII both characters are still finding  their place in society and are trying not to reflect on the horrors of war.

It is a tense psychological thriller and at the same time a love story in which intimate scenes are described delicately and erotically.

It is a tense psychological thriller and at the same time a love story in which intimate scenes are described delicately and erotically. With time, Isabel goes from prejudice and repulsion to desire.  It studies the question of whether we can look away from something terrible and move on without consequences and where does complicity come from?

It is a novel that faces up to the facts of history, told from personal perspectives with revelations of trauma and repression. We discover that Isabel is someone completely different from who she appears to be.

This novel is an original because it introduces and explores aspects of war and the Holocaust that have not been addressed in fiction writing before. This work deserves to be read.

The authour, Yael van der Wouden, was born in Israel in 1987 to a Jewish mother and Dutch father. She lived her early years in a town east of Tel Aviv, then moved to The Netherlands when she was 13 years old. She is Jewish herself but wrote the book from a gentile’s perspective. This, her first novel, had been shortlisted for the 2024 Booker Prize which indicated the quality of the story and the writing.

In her acceptance speech, Yael van der Wouden revealed that she is hormonally intersex. She said that her own experiences of life were brought into play in the novel because it was written when she was suffering personal grief.

"The Safekeep" and "A story of the Heart" win the Women's Prizes for fiction and nonfiction

In complete contrast, “The Story of a Heart’ is a piece of factual investigative journalism, well written with humanity and compassion about a very sensitive subject – heart transplants.

Dr Rachel Clarke was first a journalist, then re-trained as a doctor and it is in both these roles that she gained the knowledge and experience to write this book. She has pieced together the historical facts behind organ transplants and put them into a contemporary context by telling the life stories of Kiera and Max and their families. One family, in the depths of despair, had to make such an agonizing decision as to whether and when to let go of their child. For the other it was a story of enduring hope that a miracle might occur.

Through meticulous research Rachel Clarke interweaves these two delicate accounts of the very personal human experience of organ donation.

Through meticulous research Rachel Clarke interweaves these two delicate accounts of the very personal human experience of organ donation. She praises all the efforts which go into making heart transplant surgery possible and which is only successful by the skills and effort of a team of caring experts, surgeons, immunologists, nurses and scientists who are all involved.

Rachel Clark’s account follows the circumstances of Kiera, a nine year old girl heart donor, who suffers catastrophic brain injuries in a car collision, and the recipient, nine year old Max, who has been in hospital for a year suffering from a viral infection which is causing his heart to slowly fail.

It is an extraordinary achievement by the authour to tell the story of these two individuals and their families with such sensitivity and compassion. The heart is not just a pump circulating blood but is a symbol that makes us human, so there is an  extra emotional weight in these unimaginable, difficult circumstances.

In researching for the book Rachel Clarke had to build the trust of Kiera’s family. Any parent would understand the enormous emotional grief they were going through at the time. Yet at the same time they had to make clear, logical decisions about Kiera’s fate post mortem. To Rachel Clarke’s credit, she let each family read the manuscript for their comments and approval before its publication. She now works in palliative care, and it is possible that with this experience she was able to write something with such compassion and understanding.

‘The Story of a Heart’ is an account of the strength of love and compassion and care. It  is very emotional to read.

These two awards come as a result of many years by the organizers to promote the work of women novelists. The Women’s Prize for fiction was first founded in1995 by women authors, Kate Mosse and others, who, on discovering that there were no women nominees for the 1991 Booker prize, decided to set up their own annual book prize, but with only women authors as contenders. It was met initially with fierce criticism by men who did not see it was necessary.  The award has continued annually since then and in the last two years a non-fiction category prize has been added.