In a revealing interview, acclaimed author Yael van der Wouden has detailed the literary journey that shaped her, from a childhood fascination with a hidden joke book to the profound novels that steered her career and personal identity. The Dutch writer, whose novel The Safekeep is published by Penguin, shares the pivotal reads that marked each era of her life.
The Formative Years: Childhood Secrets and Teenage Transformations
Van der Wouden's earliest reading memory isn't of wholesome tales, but of a book of dirty jokes she secretly pilfered at age eight, convinced it was forbidden. Her mother's bemused reaction—a mumbled "I don't judge"—left a lasting impression. Growing up in the Netherlands, her favourite author was Thea Beckman, a cornerstone of 80s and 90s young adult fiction there. She cites Beckman's Hasse Simonsdochter and the time-travel adventure Crusade in Jeans as particularly influential.
As a teenager, her perspective was radically altered by Douglas Adams's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Growing up during the 90s alien boom, with pervasive UFO talk and The X-Files fuelling her fears, her father gave her the book as a form of "exposure therapy." It succeeded by rendering her terror of aliens utterly ridiculous through characters like Zaphod Beeblebrox.
Literary Turning Points and a Career Declared
Another teenage conviction was upended by literature. Firmly planning a nose job upon adulthood, van der Wouden's resolve shattered after reading Nathan Englander's The Ministry of Special Cases at age 19. The novel's tragicomic plot, where parents trade their heritage—symbolised by their noses—for a chance to find their disappeared son, made her reconsider trading a "stereotyped marker of my heritage" for normative beauty standards.
It was Jonathan Safran Foer's Everything Is Illuminated that directly inspired her vocational path. As a teenager, she typed the author "a very earnest letter announcing that now I, too, would be a writer." This youthful declaration foreshadowed her future success.
The Writer's Reckoning: Revisiting and Rereading
Van der Wouden's relationship with books evolved as she matured. At 20, she "breathed fire," harshly critiquing novels that didn't reflect her identity as a young queer Jewish woman. She initially dismissed Alan Hollinghurst's The Line of Beauty for this reason, only to return to it in her late twenties and become a huge fan. She now champions his work, including The Sparsholt Affair, and was recently flustered to meet him.
She frequently returns to Zadie Smith's essay collection Changing My Mind, finding different pieces resonant depending on whether she feels more like a reader or a writer. Her ultimate comfort read is Jane Austen, admitting she is "but one of many" devotees.
Some books, however, offer a uniquely powerful, one-time experience. She read James Baldwin's Giovanni's Room in a single six-hour train ride to Berlin, arriving at the Hauptbahnhof almost beside herself with a devastation she feels can only be felt once.
Discoveries and Current Passions
Later in life, a recommendation from her girlfriend introduced her to Elizabeth Strout's My Name Is Lucy Barton, leading to a dual falling in love—with both the book and the recommender. Currently, she is immersed in Zadie Smith's latest essay collection, Dead and Alive, which has been her "entire personality" for weeks.
Van der Wouden's literary map, charted from childhood curiosity to professional acclaim, underscores how books can confront fears, reshape identity, and ultimately, define a life's work.
