Yael van der Wouden wins for The Safekeep

This 12 months’s Girls’s Prize for Fiction has been awarded to Dutch writer Yael van der Wouden for The Safekeep, a novel about an unlikely romance within the Netherlands within the Sixties.

The judges known as the e-book an “astonishing debut… a masterful mix of historical past, suspense and historic authenticity”.

The story follows a reclusive girl whose brother asks if his girlfriend can transfer in along with her for the summer season. Initially repulsed by her new housemate, a more in-depth relationship regularly develops between the 2 ladies.

The Girls’s Prize for Non-Fiction, in the meantime, went to Dr Rachel Clarke for The Story of a Coronary heart, an exploration of two households on both facet of an organ donation.

The winners had been introduced at a ceremony in London on Thursday, and can obtain £30,000 every.

Writer Package de Waal, chair of judges for the fiction award, described The Safekeep as a “traditional within the making” which might be “beloved and appreciated for generations to return”.

“Books like this do not come alongside day-after-day,” she mentioned. “Each phrase is completely positioned, web page after web page revealing a facet of battle and the Holocaust that has been, till now, largely unexplored in fiction.

“Additionally it is a love story with superbly rendered intimate scenes written with delicacy and compelling eroticism.”

The Story of a Coronary heart, which received the non-fiction prize, focuses on two household tales concerned in organ donation.

It follows the household of a nine-year-old woman named Kiera who dies an a automotive accident, and a nine-year-old boy, Max, who faces coronary heart failure because of a viral an infection.

The e-book depicts the experience and dedication of the medical employees who take care of Kiera in her last hours, and use her organs to supply Max a brand new life.

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

“Clarke’s writing is authoritative, lovely and compassionate. The analysis is meticulous, and the storytelling is expertly crafted,” she mentioned.

“She holds this treasured story with nice care and tells it with dignity, interweaving the historical past of transplant surgical procedure seamlessly.”

The e-book, Dr Clarke’s fourth, was tailored into an ITV sequence in 2024.

• Good Woman by Aria Aber
• All Fours by Miranda July
• The Persians by Sanam Mahloudji
• Inform Me The whole lot by Elizabeth Strout
• The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden
• Essentially by Nussaibah Younis

• A Thousand Threads by Neneh Cherry
• The Story of a Coronary heart: Two Households, One Hart, and a Medical Miracle by Rachel Clarke
• Elevating Hare by Chloe Dalton
• Agent Zo: The Untold Story of a Fearless World Conflict II Resistance Fighter by Clare Mulley
• What the Wild Sea Can Be: The Way forward for the World’s Ocean by Helen Scales
• Non-public Revolutions: 4 Girls Face China’s New Social Order by Yuan Yang