What do you think?
Rate this book
Safekeeping
“Safekeeping, Jessamyn Hope’s luminous, irreverent, and ambitious first novel, shows how a single item — a medieval brooch made by a Jewish artisan for his wife — connects people across time and history. Full of romance, tragedy, betrayal, and the constant reminder that chaos is a driving force in everyone’s story, Safekeeping is a wise and memorable debut by a novelist of great talent and originality.” —The Boston Globe
It’s 1994 and Adam, a drug addict from New York City, arrives at a kibbutz in Israel with a medieval sapphire brooch. To make up for a past crime, he needs to get the priceless heirloom to a woman his grandfather loved when he was a Holocaust refugee on the kibbutz fifty years earlier.
There Adam joins other troubled people trying to turn their lives around: Ulya, the ambitious and beautiful Soviet émigré; Farid, the lovelorn Palestinian farmhand; Claudette, the French Canadian Catholic with OCD; Ofir, the Israeli teenager wounded in a bus bombing; and Ziva, the old Zionist Socialist firebrand who founded the kibbutz. By the end of that summer, through their charged relationships with one another, they each get their last chance at redemption.
In the middle of this web glows the magnificent sapphire brooch with its perilous history spanning three continents and seven centuries. With insight and beauty, Safekeeping tackles that most human of questions: how can we expect to find meaning and happiness when we know that nothing lasts?
It’s 1994 and Adam, a drug addict from New York City, arrives at a kibbutz in Israel with a medieval sapphire brooch. To make up for a past crime, he needs to get the priceless heirloom to a woman his grandfather loved when he was a Holocaust refugee on the kibbutz fifty years earlier.
There Adam joins other troubled people trying to turn their lives around: Ulya, the ambitious and beautiful Soviet émigré; Farid, the lovelorn Palestinian farmhand; Claudette, the French Canadian Catholic with OCD; Ofir, the Israeli teenager wounded in a bus bombing; and Ziva, the old Zionist Socialist firebrand who founded the kibbutz. By the end of that summer, through their charged relationships with one another, they each get their last chance at redemption.
In the middle of this web glows the magnificent sapphire brooch with its perilous history spanning three continents and seven centuries. With insight and beauty, Safekeeping tackles that most human of questions: how can we expect to find meaning and happiness when we know that nothing lasts?
371 pages, Paperback
First published June 9, 2015
157 people are currently reading
13146 people want to read
About the author
Jessamyn Hope
1 book74 followersJessamyn Hope is an award-winning novelist and memoirist. Her debut novel SAFEKEEPING was a Boston Globe recommended read; acclaimed by The Globe and Mail; a New York Public Library Staff Pick; a National Jewish Book Club pick; winner of the J.I. Segal Award; and a finalist for both the Harold U. Ribalow Prize and the Paterson Fiction Prize. Safekeeping can also be found at number two on BuzzFeed's "53 Books You Won't Be Able to Put Down."
Her short stories and memoirs—originally published in Ploughshares, The Common, and other literary magazines—have received two Pushcart Prize honorable mentions, been named a Best American Notable Essay, and have been anthologized in Best Canadian Essays and The Broadview Anthology of Expository Prose.
Hope was raised in Montreal by a mother who was born in Italy and a father who grew up in South Africa, where his grandparents were immigrants from Lithuanian. After living in Israel, she moved to New York City, which has been her home for the last twenty-six years.
Learn more at jessamynhope.com.
Her short stories and memoirs—originally published in Ploughshares, The Common, and other literary magazines—have received two Pushcart Prize honorable mentions, been named a Best American Notable Essay, and have been anthologized in Best Canadian Essays and The Broadview Anthology of Expository Prose.
Hope was raised in Montreal by a mother who was born in Italy and a father who grew up in South Africa, where his grandparents were immigrants from Lithuanian. After living in Israel, she moved to New York City, which has been her home for the last twenty-six years.
Learn more at jessamynhope.com.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 348 reviews
February 9, 2017
The characters in Safekeeping are what linger in my mind....Jewish and non- Jewish. The story centers around an ornamental pin, ( a brooch), passed down through generations and continents....symbolic of 'the people' and 'our stories' ...which live on and on. We pass our treasures...our jewelry....our stories....then 'let go'. They are no longer ours to possess tightly. It's how I made sense of the ending of this story.
The author covers the history of the Holocaust, and the creation of the Kibbutz....socially and politically.
The changes in Kibbutz life are different than when I lived on Kibbutz Gesher in 1973. Some people have been frustrated with the new changes. I, too, miss the way things 'were'.
I took comfort enjoying the characters in this story. People's temperament and purpose in life don't changed as fast as laws and re-organizational policies do.
Many of the volunteers who came to live on the Kibbutz had troubled lives... with hopes for healing. Adam.. struggling with alcoholism. Claudette, a French orphan.... with mental health issues, ( OCD), ... many memorable complex characters -
It was an older woman, Ziva whom I most got a kick out of.
She was a founding member with 'old school' beliefs. She was 'exactly' like the SENIOR MEMBERS on the Kibbutz where I volunteered.
"I should warn you, Claudette, Ziva can be very... what's a nice word for it?
Forthright? Even is Israelis find her rude. Don't take anything she says personally. Believe me, I should know. She's my mother." I got such a great laugh -- Ziva is soooo much like many of the Israeli's I was fortunate enough to 'finally' get close to!
After a few hammers taken to my head!
The author, Jessamyn Hope gave us a wonderful Kibbutz story with Knockout characters!!!
The author covers the history of the Holocaust, and the creation of the Kibbutz....socially and politically.
The changes in Kibbutz life are different than when I lived on Kibbutz Gesher in 1973. Some people have been frustrated with the new changes. I, too, miss the way things 'were'.
I took comfort enjoying the characters in this story. People's temperament and purpose in life don't changed as fast as laws and re-organizational policies do.
Many of the volunteers who came to live on the Kibbutz had troubled lives... with hopes for healing. Adam.. struggling with alcoholism. Claudette, a French orphan.... with mental health issues, ( OCD), ... many memorable complex characters -
It was an older woman, Ziva whom I most got a kick out of.
She was a founding member with 'old school' beliefs. She was 'exactly' like the SENIOR MEMBERS on the Kibbutz where I volunteered.
"I should warn you, Claudette, Ziva can be very... what's a nice word for it?
Forthright? Even is Israelis find her rude. Don't take anything she says personally. Believe me, I should know. She's my mother." I got such a great laugh -- Ziva is soooo much like many of the Israeli's I was fortunate enough to 'finally' get close to!
After a few hammers taken to my head!
The author, Jessamyn Hope gave us a wonderful Kibbutz story with Knockout characters!!!
August 16, 2015
The past and present are blended here as with so many novels I've read in recent years . The center of the story seems to be an heirloom brooch passed down through centuries, but for me it was not really about the brooch but the people whose lives were touched by it .
A kibbutz in 1994 Israel is the place where the paths of several characters converge . Adam an alcoholic and drug addict is in withdrawal . He is there to find a woman named Dagmar , the woman his grandfather, a holocaust survivor , fell in love with when he came to this kibbutz after the war. He desperately wants to make things up to his grandfather, now dead , for his transgressions by giving the brooch to the woman his grandfather intended to have it . Ulya , obsessed with going to Manhattan will do anything to get out of Russia and try to make her way there . She came to the kibbutz with stolen identification. Claudette , a Canadian woman who has lived her life in an orphanage , lonely, confused , has OCD and is emotionally unstable . Ofir is the teen age piano playing soldier with dreams of being a musician. They all seem to want to be somewhere else , doing something else except Ziva the 80 year Zionist and early founder of the kibbutz who wants to stay just where she is without change.
The past stories almost always hold me more than the present but there is something about these lost people in the present day story that reached out to me as they touch each other's lives . There are lovely things that happen - unsuspecting friendship, first loves , both past and present and there are the awful things that some people do to get what they want. While so much here is about these characters and how they connect , the novel certainly takes us to places in the Jewish experience from the centuries ago , to decades ago and to present day . Hope skillfully move us back and forth.
I was fully invested in these characters and their stories . The fact that the ending was ambiguous is probably what kept me from giving that 5th star. Nevertheless, highly recommended.
Thanks to Fig Tree Books and Edelweiss.
A kibbutz in 1994 Israel is the place where the paths of several characters converge . Adam an alcoholic and drug addict is in withdrawal . He is there to find a woman named Dagmar , the woman his grandfather, a holocaust survivor , fell in love with when he came to this kibbutz after the war. He desperately wants to make things up to his grandfather, now dead , for his transgressions by giving the brooch to the woman his grandfather intended to have it . Ulya , obsessed with going to Manhattan will do anything to get out of Russia and try to make her way there . She came to the kibbutz with stolen identification. Claudette , a Canadian woman who has lived her life in an orphanage , lonely, confused , has OCD and is emotionally unstable . Ofir is the teen age piano playing soldier with dreams of being a musician. They all seem to want to be somewhere else , doing something else except Ziva the 80 year Zionist and early founder of the kibbutz who wants to stay just where she is without change.
The past stories almost always hold me more than the present but there is something about these lost people in the present day story that reached out to me as they touch each other's lives . There are lovely things that happen - unsuspecting friendship, first loves , both past and present and there are the awful things that some people do to get what they want. While so much here is about these characters and how they connect , the novel certainly takes us to places in the Jewish experience from the centuries ago , to decades ago and to present day . Hope skillfully move us back and forth.
I was fully invested in these characters and their stories . The fact that the ending was ambiguous is probably what kept me from giving that 5th star. Nevertheless, highly recommended.
Thanks to Fig Tree Books and Edelweiss.
August 18, 2015
A bit like All the Light We Cannot See, the plot of this debut novel revolves around a priceless jewel. In this case it’s a medieval sapphire brooch that has been passed down through Adam’s family for centuries. In 1994, after the death of his grandfather, a Holocaust survivor, Adam undertakes a quest to return the brooch to the woman he fell in love with on an Israeli kibbutz and never forgot. Adam has his own problems – he’s a recovering junkie and alcoholic – but he feel he owes this to his grandfather’s memory.
A kibbutz undergoing the bitter transition from communalism to salaried work provides a vivid contrast to Adam’s native New York City. Hope populates her novel with a wonderful cast of eccentric characters. There’s Ulya, a Belarussian prima donna with a shoplifting habit; Claudette, a French Canadian Catholic crippled by mental health issues; Ziva, a kibbutz veteran who fights the changes tooth and nail despite advancing infirmity; and Ofir, a young man who endeavors to finish his military service early so he can return to his beloved piano.
I loved the way that Hope links the disparate characters in a constellation of connections. Acts of generosity, small or large, make a huge difference, even though betrayals past and present still linger. Close third person narration shifts easily between all the characters’ viewpoints, while two surprising historical interludes add depth. Hope handles flashbacks as elegantly as I’ve ever seen: you follow characters into their thoughts and suddenly snap back to the present right along with them.
I’ll confess I was slightly disappointed with the inconclusive ending. We follow the brooch rather than the characters, which means that in two cases we are left wondering about a person’s fate. Still, I was so impressed with the writing, especially the interweaving of past and present, that I will be eager to watch Hope’s career. Safekeeping is published by Fig Tree Books, a champion of modern Jewish literature, and has one of the most terrific book covers I’ve seen in a while.
(Originally published with images at my blog, Bookish Beck.)
A kibbutz undergoing the bitter transition from communalism to salaried work provides a vivid contrast to Adam’s native New York City. Hope populates her novel with a wonderful cast of eccentric characters. There’s Ulya, a Belarussian prima donna with a shoplifting habit; Claudette, a French Canadian Catholic crippled by mental health issues; Ziva, a kibbutz veteran who fights the changes tooth and nail despite advancing infirmity; and Ofir, a young man who endeavors to finish his military service early so he can return to his beloved piano.
I loved the way that Hope links the disparate characters in a constellation of connections. Acts of generosity, small or large, make a huge difference, even though betrayals past and present still linger. Close third person narration shifts easily between all the characters’ viewpoints, while two surprising historical interludes add depth. Hope handles flashbacks as elegantly as I’ve ever seen: you follow characters into their thoughts and suddenly snap back to the present right along with them.
I’ll confess I was slightly disappointed with the inconclusive ending. We follow the brooch rather than the characters, which means that in two cases we are left wondering about a person’s fate. Still, I was so impressed with the writing, especially the interweaving of past and present, that I will be eager to watch Hope’s career. Safekeeping is published by Fig Tree Books, a champion of modern Jewish literature, and has one of the most terrific book covers I’ve seen in a while.
(Originally published with images at my blog, Bookish Beck.)
September 22, 2014
I am so proud to be part of the team at Fig Tree Books that will introduce this extraordinary novel to readers.
December 30, 2016
A Five Star Read - Simply precious!
This was the selection for the Jewish Book Club, of which I appear to be the sole monthly reading member. It looked great, so I thought try again. Plus my friend from Westchester was also reading it, and she wrote me to tell me that she loved it and thought I would too. She was right.
I loved everything about this story. 6 (plus) very unusual and compelling characters, each interesting and complex and broken in some way. The story begins in New York, with Adam, a troubled but good hearted kid who has lost his way, and recently lost his grandfather, the only stable and loving person in his life, who has shaped his existence. His grandfather's legacy is a 700 year old brooch, about which this story centers, and will unfold. For reasons he can barely understand or explain, and to make something meaningful happen in his life, Adam travels to a Kibbutz in Israel, (set in the last dying days of the Kibbutzim) to find an old lover and return the brooch. He arrives at the Kibbutz, broken, and alone, and the Kibbutz is dying. As is its founder, Ziva, passionate, idealistic, pioneer, and early Zionist. There are many more characters, trying to fix and heal their lives, but fascinating, there is Claudette, the French orphan with OCD, Ofir, a young bombing victim, Ulya, a Russian 1/8 Jew who is just trying to survive, and get to New York at any cost, Ziva, Adam, Ziva's son Eyal, Ulya's Arab lover, Dov, a young idealist, and a dog named Golda. The story is wonderful, and traces through the history of each of the characters. And really shows the experience of the Kibbutz and what that was about. And how and whether any or some or all of the characters ultimately find healing, transcendence, or freedom. My heart stays with this book and each of the characters within it. Plus it just made my top ten.
This was the selection for the Jewish Book Club, of which I appear to be the sole monthly reading member. It looked great, so I thought try again. Plus my friend from Westchester was also reading it, and she wrote me to tell me that she loved it and thought I would too. She was right.
I loved everything about this story. 6 (plus) very unusual and compelling characters, each interesting and complex and broken in some way. The story begins in New York, with Adam, a troubled but good hearted kid who has lost his way, and recently lost his grandfather, the only stable and loving person in his life, who has shaped his existence. His grandfather's legacy is a 700 year old brooch, about which this story centers, and will unfold. For reasons he can barely understand or explain, and to make something meaningful happen in his life, Adam travels to a Kibbutz in Israel, (set in the last dying days of the Kibbutzim) to find an old lover and return the brooch. He arrives at the Kibbutz, broken, and alone, and the Kibbutz is dying. As is its founder, Ziva, passionate, idealistic, pioneer, and early Zionist. There are many more characters, trying to fix and heal their lives, but fascinating, there is Claudette, the French orphan with OCD, Ofir, a young bombing victim, Ulya, a Russian 1/8 Jew who is just trying to survive, and get to New York at any cost, Ziva, Adam, Ziva's son Eyal, Ulya's Arab lover, Dov, a young idealist, and a dog named Golda. The story is wonderful, and traces through the history of each of the characters. And really shows the experience of the Kibbutz and what that was about. And how and whether any or some or all of the characters ultimately find healing, transcendence, or freedom. My heart stays with this book and each of the characters within it. Plus it just made my top ten.
October 4, 2015
This novel is complex and moving. It's not a fluff piece, it's not infantilizing young adult fiction, but rather a real novel for adult readers. It does not play literary games but is told through clean, simple writing. I laughed, I cried, I rooted for characters in spite of disliking them. I gained insights into the human condition. Recommended for fans of W. Somerset Maugham, Tolstoy, and Jennifer Egan.
July 2, 2016
DNF. I think that because I am Israeli, and this book is written about Israel for non-Israelis, it is not for me. Also, I did not find myself interested in the plot. I've read too many of these stories, I guess - an old man or woman leaving the protagonist something that would make them have to research their family's past, find an old love, etc. I can see where this is going to lead, and I have no patience for such quests right now. Since I know our people's and country's history inside and out, the historical research does not add a lot to my knowledge, even though it is well done and nicely written. As I said, not for me, not right now. It may be a wonderful read for others who want to know more about Israelis, Israeli ways of life and the history behind it.
July 16, 2015
For some reason I didn't think I would like this book as much as I did; I have strong opinions on unreliable narrators, nonetheless, Safekeeping won me over - it was probably the dog that did it. The story was interesting and purposeful and there were a few characters I wish I could spend more time with. Beautifully written and highly recommended.
I think Jessamyn Hope could quickly become one of my favorite new authors. *Crossing my fingers she writes a book about Ofir. He is a heartbreaking character and his scene in the kasbah was an all time favorite.
I think Jessamyn Hope could quickly become one of my favorite new authors. *Crossing my fingers she writes a book about Ofir. He is a heartbreaking character and his scene in the kasbah was an all time favorite.
February 27, 2015
SAFEKEEPING is a gem of a novel – a big, multi-faceted gem. Hope deftly weaves together the stories of six major characters from very different backgrounds. As the novel progresses, the characters’ lives impact each other in unexpected ways, the most ironic of which is seeing their individual dramas played out in an environment, the kibbutz, that is so much about conformity. But like the sapphire broach that is at the heart of the story and propels the action, this story is about the strange, eternal flux between tragedy and comedy that makes up life and always has. From chapters going back to the ancient origins of the broach, to the establishment of the kibbutz and its early fight for survival, to the painful circumstances that have led each of these characters to seek refuge in a place whose future is in jeopardy, SAFEKEEPING pulses with desperation and hope. As different as they appeared to be from each other, I found myself identifying with each character on so many levels. When they meet their destinies at the end, it took my breath away.
July 26, 2015
The setting of this book is what initially piqued my interest - the majority of the story takes place on an Israeli kibbutz in the 1990s, with well placed and seamless flashbacks. The intricate plot and characters really drew me in as well. It's been a long time since I've really gotten lost in a book. A very satisfying read.
June 14, 2015
What a surprise – a finely crafted page turner with heartbreakingly real characters. These characters stuck with me long after I finished reading: Ziva – the tough-minded idealist; Adam – the addict with a guilty conscience; Ulya – the beautiful pragmatist with a heart of ice, and Claudette – the obsessive-compulsive, lost as much in innocence as in her own mind. They are all brought together on a kibbutz for a few months in 1994, where their memories spar and dance with their present world.
It’s in the melding of past and present where the novel truly soars. Each character in trying to create their future is inescapably linked to their past. And, at the center of these stories, the state of Israel itself, tethered to history by a thousand different threads; its creation, a culmination of pogroms, holocausts, and a great cultural yearning. Not only is Safekeeping a love story, one that recognizes the limits of love and its harsh realities, but it’s also a love story between the Jewish people and Israel. If any novel can convince a reader about the necessity of Israel, this is it. This should be required reading for every book club.
It’s in the melding of past and present where the novel truly soars. Each character in trying to create their future is inescapably linked to their past. And, at the center of these stories, the state of Israel itself, tethered to history by a thousand different threads; its creation, a culmination of pogroms, holocausts, and a great cultural yearning. Not only is Safekeeping a love story, one that recognizes the limits of love and its harsh realities, but it’s also a love story between the Jewish people and Israel. If any novel can convince a reader about the necessity of Israel, this is it. This should be required reading for every book club.
Read
June 11, 2015To atone for a past crime, Adam, a drug addict from New York City, must give a priceless heirloom to a woman his grandfather loved when he was a Holocaust refugee in Israel fifty years earlier. There, Adam meets other lost souls, and together they try and work out a shot at redemption. Safekeeping is a gorgeous debut, spanning seven centuries, that questions what it means to do, well, anything, if everything is temporary. This is an excellent emotional roller coaster ride.
Tune in to our weekly All The Books podcast to keep tabs on new books hitting shelves: http://bookriot.com/category/all-the-...
Tune in to our weekly All The Books podcast to keep tabs on new books hitting shelves: http://bookriot.com/category/all-the-...
February 27, 2015
Safekeeping is a brilliant, complex, heartrending novel set on a kibbutz in 1994. Hope deftly weaves together multiple storylines with crystalline clear prose that illuminate the darkest hearts of her troubled protagonists. This novel is going to be huge. Highly recommended.
March 6, 2015
Safekeeping: A Novel, blends a Medieval sapphire brooch with the lives of those living on a kibbutz in Israel, and those who have come to volunteer there. I was engrossed from the first page to the last page.
The story line explores how the old timers-the founders of the kibbutz and their adult children, intermingle with those who are volunteers. The dynamics between the sides are depicted in depth.
I found the novel to be a deep depiction of emotional and mental capacities within the framework of kibbutz life, and those who choose to remain in an environment of socialism and extremes, compared to those who choose to move forward and bring a new definition to the kibbutz and community within it. Whether it be fifty years or one hundred years or more, nothing is continually static. Life goes on, changes occur, and nothing remains the same within the scheme of things.
It is an extremely compelling and intense read, leaving one to ponder questions of identity, change, old time attitudes, socialism, autonomy, and materialistic items within the realm of individual possession, or as part of the whole.
The story line is complex, and handled masterfully through Jessamyn Hope’s writing. I applaud her dedication to historical fact, and to the humanness of her characters.
I want to thank Fig Tree Books, and want to thank Erika Dreifus for the Advanced Review Copy. I feel privileged to have been given the book-which I thoroughly enjoyed.
The story line explores how the old timers-the founders of the kibbutz and their adult children, intermingle with those who are volunteers. The dynamics between the sides are depicted in depth.
I found the novel to be a deep depiction of emotional and mental capacities within the framework of kibbutz life, and those who choose to remain in an environment of socialism and extremes, compared to those who choose to move forward and bring a new definition to the kibbutz and community within it. Whether it be fifty years or one hundred years or more, nothing is continually static. Life goes on, changes occur, and nothing remains the same within the scheme of things.
It is an extremely compelling and intense read, leaving one to ponder questions of identity, change, old time attitudes, socialism, autonomy, and materialistic items within the realm of individual possession, or as part of the whole.
The story line is complex, and handled masterfully through Jessamyn Hope’s writing. I applaud her dedication to historical fact, and to the humanness of her characters.
I want to thank Fig Tree Books, and want to thank Erika Dreifus for the Advanced Review Copy. I feel privileged to have been given the book-which I thoroughly enjoyed.
September 3, 2015
I read this book based on a review in a Buzzfeed article called, "53 books you won't be able to put down". I thought the setting - an Israeli kibbutz, and the story of an addict traveling to fulfill his grandfather's dying wish, sounded interesting. I just finished it and really wish I had not spent my time doing so.
The writing itself is well-done, and the descriptions of the characters, places etc. are well-done, but I just did not like the story in the least. It is basically depressing from every character's standpoint, and the end is absolutely terrible. Nothing to take away at the end other than perhaps the author was just tired and wanted to finish the book. This book left me feeling down, and disappointed, and frustrated that I had read the whole thing, hoping it would be redeemed at the end by some sort of good ending, or meaning, or something, and it was not.
The writing itself is well-done, and the descriptions of the characters, places etc. are well-done, but I just did not like the story in the least. It is basically depressing from every character's standpoint, and the end is absolutely terrible. Nothing to take away at the end other than perhaps the author was just tired and wanted to finish the book. This book left me feeling down, and disappointed, and frustrated that I had read the whole thing, hoping it would be redeemed at the end by some sort of good ending, or meaning, or something, and it was not.
May 31, 2015
Safekeeping is a big, sweeping novel with interesting characters that intertwine in interesting and unexpected ways. I especially loved Ziva, the kibbutznik, though all of the characters were enchanting. Well-worth the read!
April 16, 2015
Random characters brought together through time and place, their lives woven together despite their vast differences, as each of them searches for meaning amidst the impermanence of life. This is the center thread that beautifully ties Jessamyn Hope's novel, Safekeeping, together.
Hope does a wonderful job of character development. I came to truly care for the people I encountered throughout the novel. I desperately wanted Adam to succeed in his quest to find Dagmar and give her the brooch. I hoped Claudette would find wholeness (or at least normalcy!). I saw the chink in Ziva's self-defense. I sensed the desperation in Ulya's need for a new life. It was quite the journey to walk through their highs and lows alongside them!
Having heard of the kibbutz, though not knowing a lot about the history of the movement, I thought that setting the novel there in the 1990's (for the most part) was brilliant. The flashbacks that Ziva, one of the founding members of the kibbutz, has that fill in some of the history of the Zionist movement from the 1940's and the efforts to form Israel in the decades that followed provide great context. Extending the boundaries of the setting's time all the way back to the 1300's as well as to the current day were the icing on the cake. (Although it is still chilling to be reminded of the brutal treatment of genocide, no matter the century in which it takes place.)
I also enjoyed that this novel had various components to it, such as mystery, drama, character study, etc. This lends an added depth to the novel which drew me in immediately. (Again, the tension of the setting--the Middle East with the Israeli/Arab conflicts added to this as well.) There was also a bit of forlorn melancholy lurking throughout as some characters realized that their way of life was coming to an end. For some, it was a loss. For others, it was a new beginning. And that is how life is: full of both.
If you enjoy novels with rich characters and interesting settings, a bit of mystery, historical connections, and thinking about the meaning of life, this is a novel you'll not want to miss. Book clubs will find a plethora of topics to dive into discussion over!
Thank you to Fig Tree Books LLC for the ARC I received in exchange for this review!
From the Publisher . . .
Jessamyn Hope’s Safekeeping is a profound and moving novel about love, the inevitability of loss, and the courage it takes to keep starting over.
It’s 1994 and Adam, a drug addict from New York City, arrives at a kibbutz in Israel with a medieval sapphire brooch. To make up for a past crime, he needs to get the priceless heirloom to a woman his grandfather loved when he was a Holocaust refugee on the kibbutz fifty years earlier.
There Adam joins other troubled people trying to turn their lives around: Ulya, the ambitious and beautiful Soviet émigré; Farid, the lovelorn Palestinian farmhand; Claudette, the French Canadian Catholic with OCD; Ofir, the Israeli teenager wounded in a bus bombing; and Ziva, the old Zionist Socialist firebrand who founded the kibbutz. By the end of that summer, through their charged relationships with one another, they each get their last chance at redemption.
In the middle of this web glows the magnificent sapphire brooch with its perilous history spanning three continents and seven centuries. With insight and beauty, Safekeeping tackles that most human of questions: how can we expect to find meaning and happiness when we know that nothing lasts?
About the Author . . .
Jessamyn Hope grew up in Montreal and lived in Israel before moving to New York City. Her debut novel SAFKEEPING comes out June 2015. Her fiction and memoirs have appeared in Ploughshares, Five Points, Colorado Review, Descant, and PRISM international, among other literary magazines. She was the Susannah McCorkle Scholar in Fiction at the 2012 Sewanee Writers' Conference and has an M.F.A. in creative writing from Sarah Lawrence College. Learn more at jessamynhope.com.
Hope does a wonderful job of character development. I came to truly care for the people I encountered throughout the novel. I desperately wanted Adam to succeed in his quest to find Dagmar and give her the brooch. I hoped Claudette would find wholeness (or at least normalcy!). I saw the chink in Ziva's self-defense. I sensed the desperation in Ulya's need for a new life. It was quite the journey to walk through their highs and lows alongside them!
Having heard of the kibbutz, though not knowing a lot about the history of the movement, I thought that setting the novel there in the 1990's (for the most part) was brilliant. The flashbacks that Ziva, one of the founding members of the kibbutz, has that fill in some of the history of the Zionist movement from the 1940's and the efforts to form Israel in the decades that followed provide great context. Extending the boundaries of the setting's time all the way back to the 1300's as well as to the current day were the icing on the cake. (Although it is still chilling to be reminded of the brutal treatment of genocide, no matter the century in which it takes place.)
I also enjoyed that this novel had various components to it, such as mystery, drama, character study, etc. This lends an added depth to the novel which drew me in immediately. (Again, the tension of the setting--the Middle East with the Israeli/Arab conflicts added to this as well.) There was also a bit of forlorn melancholy lurking throughout as some characters realized that their way of life was coming to an end. For some, it was a loss. For others, it was a new beginning. And that is how life is: full of both.
If you enjoy novels with rich characters and interesting settings, a bit of mystery, historical connections, and thinking about the meaning of life, this is a novel you'll not want to miss. Book clubs will find a plethora of topics to dive into discussion over!
Thank you to Fig Tree Books LLC for the ARC I received in exchange for this review!
From the Publisher . . .
Jessamyn Hope’s Safekeeping is a profound and moving novel about love, the inevitability of loss, and the courage it takes to keep starting over.
It’s 1994 and Adam, a drug addict from New York City, arrives at a kibbutz in Israel with a medieval sapphire brooch. To make up for a past crime, he needs to get the priceless heirloom to a woman his grandfather loved when he was a Holocaust refugee on the kibbutz fifty years earlier.
There Adam joins other troubled people trying to turn their lives around: Ulya, the ambitious and beautiful Soviet émigré; Farid, the lovelorn Palestinian farmhand; Claudette, the French Canadian Catholic with OCD; Ofir, the Israeli teenager wounded in a bus bombing; and Ziva, the old Zionist Socialist firebrand who founded the kibbutz. By the end of that summer, through their charged relationships with one another, they each get their last chance at redemption.
In the middle of this web glows the magnificent sapphire brooch with its perilous history spanning three continents and seven centuries. With insight and beauty, Safekeeping tackles that most human of questions: how can we expect to find meaning and happiness when we know that nothing lasts?
About the Author . . .
Jessamyn Hope grew up in Montreal and lived in Israel before moving to New York City. Her debut novel SAFKEEPING comes out June 2015. Her fiction and memoirs have appeared in Ploughshares, Five Points, Colorado Review, Descant, and PRISM international, among other literary magazines. She was the Susannah McCorkle Scholar in Fiction at the 2012 Sewanee Writers' Conference and has an M.F.A. in creative writing from Sarah Lawrence College. Learn more at jessamynhope.com.
December 16, 2015
I won this Audio CD of Jessamyn Hope's novel in a giveaway on Rebecca Foster's book blog and put it aside until I had some serious driving to do. I can't comment on how the book reads, since I only listened, but the narrator was WONDERFUL -- so wonderful that I believe I enjoyed hearing Safekeeping more than I would have enjoyed reading it on the page.
Kristen Potter's Russian-accented English (for Ulya) and her breathy French-tinged English (for Claudette) were exactly right, and probably account for why these two were my favorite characters. I don't blame Potter for not bringing all the characters so vividly to life; it seems to me that Hope put more of herself in these two women. They are unique, whereas other characters are composites, representative of things: Ziva is the old socialist-zionist spirit of Israel's founding generation; her son is the reality of kibbutz life today; Adam is the conflicted American Jew who has lost touch with his heritage; Ofir is the younger generation of soldiers who must sacrifice their dreams to protect the state; Franz is your basic Holocaust survivor who happened to have a stint on a kibbutz before ending up in New York, etc.
I most appreciated the descriptions of landscapes. Hope is very good at capturing the feel of a place and, although I have never been on a kibbutz, I can imagine Sadot Hadar.
(I'm delighted to learn that Kristen Potter also narrated Station Eleven, and will look forward to listening to her narration on my next serious car trip.)
Kristen Potter's Russian-accented English (for Ulya) and her breathy French-tinged English (for Claudette) were exactly right, and probably account for why these two were my favorite characters. I don't blame Potter for not bringing all the characters so vividly to life; it seems to me that Hope put more of herself in these two women. They are unique, whereas other characters are composites, representative of things: Ziva is the old socialist-zionist spirit of Israel's founding generation; her son is the reality of kibbutz life today; Adam is the conflicted American Jew who has lost touch with his heritage; Ofir is the younger generation of soldiers who must sacrifice their dreams to protect the state; Franz is your basic Holocaust survivor who happened to have a stint on a kibbutz before ending up in New York, etc.
I most appreciated the descriptions of landscapes. Hope is very good at capturing the feel of a place and, although I have never been on a kibbutz, I can imagine Sadot Hadar.
(I'm delighted to learn that Kristen Potter also narrated Station Eleven, and will look forward to listening to her narration on my next serious car trip.)
November 19, 2015
Safekeeping is a beautifully written novel that crosses many continents, cultures and generations. It is a story of new beginnings, from the pioneers establishing a new homeland in Palestine, to Holocaust survivors seeking a place to heal after their tragedy, to a Russian émigré seeking escape from the USSR, to a woman with OCD who has just left the orphanage she grew up in for the first time, to an Israeli teen wounded in a bus bombing and to a troubled young man running from his past and trying to right mistakes that he made. Told from the multiple perspectives of these flawed characters, each seeking redemption on a kibbutz in Israel, the story is dramatic and compelling and fascinating in its historic details. I had a hard time putting it down!
July 6, 2015
This is a thoroughly enjoyable novel with some truly interesting characters. Jessamyn Hope does a wonderful job in her debut of introducing and developing characters. These are all disparate people who are brought together on an Israeli kibbutz in 1994 for completely different reasons. Their interactions are complex and engaging for the reader as the book unfolds. At the center of this story line is an heirloom brooch but the true jewel of the book is communication between the characters and how each impacts the other. Delightful book.
November 28, 2023
I think I may have given this five stars if towards the end it didn’t start spiraling into a dialogue on how anti Zionism may as well be the same as anti semitism etc etc. was very off putting for me and tainted other interactions that I would have chocked up to being the characters’ stress and sadness over navigating a difficult era/life/situation
July 22, 2018
Maybe 50-100 pages too long which feels harsh as there were definitely moments of grace and beauty. There is a genuine nobility in one of the character's resilience and insistence on staying true to her path. The strength of those that founded the kibbutzim in the 40s and dedicated their lives to selflessly building the nascent state and establishing an agricultural economy is often forgotten amid the wars and the politics. Readable and moving.
October 16, 2016
"That was the salvation of being an artist. The worst experience could be transformed into meaning and beauty."
"He didn't see how it was possible not to fall in love again. If you were paying attention to people. People were so heartbreaking, beautiful. Other people, anyway."
"If this Anna was his great-great-who-knew-how-many-greats-grandmother, then he hadn't only betrayed his grandfather, but seven hundred years of his ancestors. How many generations was that? Forty? Fifty? Seven hundred years of the brooch getting passed down, all for him to sell it to get some money to pay off a fuckhead named Bones?"
"The quiet became more and more unbearable to him. He even considered turning on the radio. He reached for it, but then returned his hand to the steering wheel. How could he enjoy listening to music knowing that he couldn't compose his own? He had never understood how people listened to symphonies, admired paintings, read books without feeling the need to contribute their own works of art."
"I am here, she thoughts. She had never felt so here before, so existent, like she wasn't only floating in the dark warm lake, but floating in a moment of time - a moment that in a few heartbeats would be gone, never to be had again.
"She didn't want that. To think she had almost killed herself. She had never feared time or death before but now, feeling so here, so alive - as if she couldn't have one without the other - she also felt with a terrible keenness how one day she wouldn't be here, wouldn't be with Ofir."
"I suppose it might not sound like the most monstrous mistake to you. When you're young you fear making these big mistakes. You don't realize how many of your deepest regrets are going to come down to a few words you wished you hand't said, small things you wished you'd done or didn't do that would have made all the difference."
I started reading this book because of this article.
Adam, the main character of this book, was an alcoholic and a drug addict. A fuck up, to sum things up. But he tries. He did a lot of bad shit in his teenage years and in the peak of his career as a failure of a human being, he stole his granddad's beloved brooch and sold it to pay off his debts. His granddad found out about it and died in a heart attack. Adam, feeling guilty, made the promise to get the brooch back and return it to Dagmar, the woman Franz loved.
So Adam stole the brooch back from a jeweller after finding out that the brooch turns out to be a priceless historical piece back from the 1300 even though the jeweller already promised he'd keep it until Adam had the money to pay for the brooch. But because he is a piece of shit, of course he had to steal it instead. He fled the country and went to Sadot Hadar, the kibbutz Franz lived in back then and where Dagmar was supposed to be. You have to give it to him, though he made some really awful decisions, essentially he wasn't a bad person. He stayed true to his promise. He could've easily sold the brooch again now knowing its value but he didn't. In a way he reminds me of Theo from The Goldfinch. Both stuck with having a priceless item in their possession and both can fuck up so royally like it's their true talent.
From then on Adam continued his endless work of searching for Dagmar. Meanwhile, we also get to see other characters' lives like Ulya's, Claudette's, Ofir's, and Ziva's. Throughout this book I experience this feeling, like I'm rooting for all of these characters. I rooted for Ulya, the savage Russian queen with the heart of ice, even though she wanted to steal the brooch so she could go to America. At the same time I desperately wanted Adam to succeed on his mission to give the brooch back to Dagmar. I rooted for Claudette's sanity and his friendship with Ziva, for her love with Ofir. I rooted for Ofir's passion and his dream of going to study music and finish his composition.
This book is filled with strong women, beautiful proses, and complex characters. It was just one of those subtle and beautiful story that will leave a mark in your heart forever. I was truly absorbed because of the writing, the characters are so three dimensional and real, I can't help it but to be engrossed in their story and their lives. Everything about this book is simply amazing and I'm glad I picked it up.
4/5 stars
"He didn't see how it was possible not to fall in love again. If you were paying attention to people. People were so heartbreaking, beautiful. Other people, anyway."
"If this Anna was his great-great-who-knew-how-many-greats-grandmother, then he hadn't only betrayed his grandfather, but seven hundred years of his ancestors. How many generations was that? Forty? Fifty? Seven hundred years of the brooch getting passed down, all for him to sell it to get some money to pay off a fuckhead named Bones?"
"The quiet became more and more unbearable to him. He even considered turning on the radio. He reached for it, but then returned his hand to the steering wheel. How could he enjoy listening to music knowing that he couldn't compose his own? He had never understood how people listened to symphonies, admired paintings, read books without feeling the need to contribute their own works of art."
"I am here, she thoughts. She had never felt so here before, so existent, like she wasn't only floating in the dark warm lake, but floating in a moment of time - a moment that in a few heartbeats would be gone, never to be had again.
"She didn't want that. To think she had almost killed herself. She had never feared time or death before but now, feeling so here, so alive - as if she couldn't have one without the other - she also felt with a terrible keenness how one day she wouldn't be here, wouldn't be with Ofir."
"I suppose it might not sound like the most monstrous mistake to you. When you're young you fear making these big mistakes. You don't realize how many of your deepest regrets are going to come down to a few words you wished you hand't said, small things you wished you'd done or didn't do that would have made all the difference."
I started reading this book because of this article.
Adam, the main character of this book, was an alcoholic and a drug addict. A fuck up, to sum things up. But he tries. He did a lot of bad shit in his teenage years and in the peak of his career as a failure of a human being, he stole his granddad's beloved brooch and sold it to pay off his debts. His granddad found out about it and died in a heart attack. Adam, feeling guilty, made the promise to get the brooch back and return it to Dagmar, the woman Franz loved.
So Adam stole the brooch back from a jeweller after finding out that the brooch turns out to be a priceless historical piece back from the 1300 even though the jeweller already promised he'd keep it until Adam had the money to pay for the brooch. But because he is a piece of shit, of course he had to steal it instead. He fled the country and went to Sadot Hadar, the kibbutz Franz lived in back then and where Dagmar was supposed to be. You have to give it to him, though he made some really awful decisions, essentially he wasn't a bad person. He stayed true to his promise. He could've easily sold the brooch again now knowing its value but he didn't. In a way he reminds me of Theo from The Goldfinch. Both stuck with having a priceless item in their possession and both can fuck up so royally like it's their true talent.
From then on Adam continued his endless work of searching for Dagmar. Meanwhile, we also get to see other characters' lives like Ulya's, Claudette's, Ofir's, and Ziva's. Throughout this book I experience this feeling, like I'm rooting for all of these characters. I rooted for Ulya, the savage Russian queen with the heart of ice, even though she wanted to steal the brooch so she could go to America. At the same time I desperately wanted Adam to succeed on his mission to give the brooch back to Dagmar. I rooted for Claudette's sanity and his friendship with Ziva, for her love with Ofir. I rooted for Ofir's passion and his dream of going to study music and finish his composition.
This book is filled with strong women, beautiful proses, and complex characters. It was just one of those subtle and beautiful story that will leave a mark in your heart forever. I was truly absorbed because of the writing, the characters are so three dimensional and real, I can't help it but to be engrossed in their story and their lives. Everything about this book is simply amazing and I'm glad I picked it up.
4/5 stars
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 25, 2020
Okay. Let me start with what I liked about this book. The kibbutz setting was original and described richly. I enjoyed the focus on aspects of secular Jewish life which show a shared, meaningful culture and tradition even without religion. There were moments of true insight peppered throughout. There was an unexpected bit of Canadian history which I enjoyed. Unlike other reviewers, I didn't mind the end and actually thought it was fitting and realistic. There are some interesting ideas nestled in this novel, particularly about mediating painful pasts and confronting the fact that sometimes there is no such thing as atonement or closure.
That said, clearly from my rating there was more that I didn't enjoy. Let me start with the premise: someone who has done wrong setting off on a journey to return a priceless object to its supposed rightful owner in order to find some sort of penance. I just find the premise a little overdone and banal, though it is subverted somewhat. I wasn't a huge fan of the framing of the narrative and flashbacks, either: characters were just constantly lapsing into detailed reveries. This integrates the flashbacks into the text, but I found it more jarring to constantly move between past and present than if the flashbacks had been a little more separated. As usual with multi-character narratives, some were a lot more interesting than others. I didn't particularly like how the perspective could change from paragraph to paragraph, either. It felt messy.
In general I object to the politics of this novel. I mean, where do I even start? First, Adam's addiction isn't explored in any depth and is basically used to bolster the idea that he's a bad person. (I mean, I guess he's supposed to be kind of sympathetic, but he's also a misogynist and generally just terrible.) The treatment of Claudette's OCD didn't ring true, either: . Ulya is a really horrible character, and I don't just mean because she's a bad person. Yes, she is mean, selfish, greedy, and a criminal - and I find the fact that she's also overtly sexual a lazy misogynistic stereotype clearly tying lack of morals with female sexuality. (Oh, and punishing her with is just icing on the cake.) Ziva's socialism and feminism are written as aggressive and militant: because she believes in progressive values, she isolates herself... even though she's kind of right. And the position on Israel is just... not something I can get behind. This is a fraught topic, but the positioning of anyone who questions Israel as inherently anti-Semitic and refusal to consider the Palestinian perspective is just really off. A lot of characters espouse racist viewpoints against Palestinians which the narrative doesn't challenge at all.
Basically, I had a lot of technical and political issues with this novel, which is too bad, because the blurb made it sound like it had a lot of potential.
That said, clearly from my rating there was more that I didn't enjoy. Let me start with the premise: someone who has done wrong setting off on a journey to return a priceless object to its supposed rightful owner in order to find some sort of penance. I just find the premise a little overdone and banal, though it is subverted somewhat. I wasn't a huge fan of the framing of the narrative and flashbacks, either: characters were just constantly lapsing into detailed reveries. This integrates the flashbacks into the text, but I found it more jarring to constantly move between past and present than if the flashbacks had been a little more separated. As usual with multi-character narratives, some were a lot more interesting than others. I didn't particularly like how the perspective could change from paragraph to paragraph, either. It felt messy.
In general I object to the politics of this novel. I mean, where do I even start? First, Adam's addiction isn't explored in any depth and is basically used to bolster the idea that he's a bad person. (I mean, I guess he's supposed to be kind of sympathetic, but he's also a misogynist and generally just terrible.) The treatment of Claudette's OCD didn't ring true, either: . Ulya is a really horrible character, and I don't just mean because she's a bad person. Yes, she is mean, selfish, greedy, and a criminal - and I find the fact that she's also overtly sexual a lazy misogynistic stereotype clearly tying lack of morals with female sexuality. (Oh, and punishing her with is just icing on the cake.) Ziva's socialism and feminism are written as aggressive and militant: because she believes in progressive values, she isolates herself... even though she's kind of right. And the position on Israel is just... not something I can get behind. This is a fraught topic, but the positioning of anyone who questions Israel as inherently anti-Semitic and refusal to consider the Palestinian perspective is just really off. A lot of characters espouse racist viewpoints against Palestinians which the narrative doesn't challenge at all.
Basically, I had a lot of technical and political issues with this novel, which is too bad, because the blurb made it sound like it had a lot of potential.
July 8, 2015
There are so many things I love about this all-consuming, well-written book: the unreliable characters, who constantly make you seesaw between rooting for them and hating them, thus making them feel like full, real people you could be passing on the street; the well-defined history of Jews and their never-ending plight; the beautiful setting, a kibbutz in Israel, a place where everyone is given second chances, all while living under a microscope of public judgment. A place that is old and complicated and beautiful, much like the gold brooch at the heart of the story. But beyond all that, I like the stories beneath the story, how every character is at once obsessed with their own mission, and yet they are all unquestioningly interconnected and affecting one another. How the history of an object is at once the driving force of the narrative, but also, like Ziva says towards the end of the book, "Just an object. And not even a useful one." How people keep making the same mistakes, because it's never enough to hear wisdom that comes from someone else, if you manage to listen at all; even the history of the brooch gets lost to those who own it, because first Adam's grandpa, then Adam, both can't pay attention long enough to learn it from their family members. This is all wonderfully juxtaposed with the final chapter (possibly my favorite!), where no one can pay attention to anything anymore, because every two seconds something new pops up in their online news feeds, a story about ISIS and a video of a dog and chicken often given the same weight. The line, spoken of a woman this character only met once, "Why he had paid witness to everything this woman he eaten for the last three years was a mystery" is both humorous and poignant, but also, in a way, reflects back onto the running theme that every human interaction is ripe with consequence and meaning.
All in all, there is much food for thought here. And since we never really find out what happens to some of the main characters, I feel like it might be something I'll be chewing on for quite a while. A highly recommended read!
All in all, there is much food for thought here. And since we never really find out what happens to some of the main characters, I feel like it might be something I'll be chewing on for quite a while. A highly recommended read!
December 29, 2015
This is a beautiful and well-constructed book, and in reading it I was surprised not to have heard more about it upon its publication. The story line is hugely ambitious, especially for a debut author like Jessamyn Hope.
While reading, all I kept thinking was: "My favorite book all year! My favorite book all year!" I just couldn't put it down. The ending, though, left me with so many unanswered questions, which was frustrating, and left me dissatisfied. Though I did like the final chapter, which is set in New York in 2014, I needed more of a bridge in getting there. After spending hours engrossed in the lives of the vividly imagined characters of the kibbutz, I wanted to know what happened to them. And I still do!
So while I can't say that it is, in the end, my favorite book I've read this year, I can say that I loved reading it, and I would definitely suggest it to others -- particularly fans of Anthony Doerr's All the Light We Cannot See. And, despite the ending, I'll go ahead and give it 5 stars anyways.
While reading, all I kept thinking was: "My favorite book all year! My favorite book all year!" I just couldn't put it down. The ending, though, left me with so many unanswered questions, which was frustrating, and left me dissatisfied. Though I did like the final chapter, which is set in New York in 2014, I needed more of a bridge in getting there. After spending hours engrossed in the lives of the vividly imagined characters of the kibbutz, I wanted to know what happened to them. And I still do!
So while I can't say that it is, in the end, my favorite book I've read this year, I can say that I loved reading it, and I would definitely suggest it to others -- particularly fans of Anthony Doerr's All the Light We Cannot See. And, despite the ending, I'll go ahead and give it 5 stars anyways.
September 3, 2015
3.5 stars
This was a really engaging read. The characters in here are all extremely unique as they work through their past and what they want from their future. Watching them reconcile what has happened, what they wish they could change, and what they can actually do about their future just really resonated with me and I thoroughly enjoyed learning about these characters. Plus the setting of a kibbutz in Israel is nothing that I've read about before and was really interesting to read about.
This was a really engaging read. The characters in here are all extremely unique as they work through their past and what they want from their future. Watching them reconcile what has happened, what they wish they could change, and what they can actually do about their future just really resonated with me and I thoroughly enjoyed learning about these characters. Plus the setting of a kibbutz in Israel is nothing that I've read about before and was really interesting to read about.
June 16, 2015
Not only is this novel smart, thought provoking and exceptionally well written, it’s just a damn good read. Once I got started it was hard to stop reading.
Hope works with several protagonists and all are compelling and interesting (and readable) in their own ways. No dogs here. (Well, except Golda, the little Chihuahua that follows Adam around. And even she’s a great character!) Despite the often heavy subject matter, Hope manages to weave in moments of lightness and humor. The ending left me stunned for the journey all the characters took, and the fact that this gorgeous novel had come to an end.
The craft of the writing is something that shouldn’t be overlooked. Close third-person narration and the seamless weaving of backstory to present is so good you won’t even notice it—quite the point.
An amazing debut novel from a hugely talented writer.
Hope works with several protagonists and all are compelling and interesting (and readable) in their own ways. No dogs here. (Well, except Golda, the little Chihuahua that follows Adam around. And even she’s a great character!) Despite the often heavy subject matter, Hope manages to weave in moments of lightness and humor. The ending left me stunned for the journey all the characters took, and the fact that this gorgeous novel had come to an end.
The craft of the writing is something that shouldn’t be overlooked. Close third-person narration and the seamless weaving of backstory to present is so good you won’t even notice it—quite the point.
An amazing debut novel from a hugely talented writer.
April 29, 2015
I can say with absolute certainty that this is the only novel I've ever read set on a kibbutz in the 1990s. And I reeeeaaaaly enjoyed it. At first I was discouraged by the book's length, but it was very well-paced and I found that I didn't want to put it down. Some of the characters were more fleshed out than others, and the last 50-75 pages inched a little bit too closely to melodrama for my taste, but overall I was absorbed and entertained. Reminded me of "The Goldfinch" a bit, in how the characters were all interconnected and the story swept across various times and places.
July 4, 2015
Jessamyn Hope weaves a complex, riveting story with fascinating characters, particularly the lead person, Adam. No one is without flaws in Safekeeping, and that's part of its appeal. Based mostly on a kibbutz in Israel, Safekeeping takes readers into many centuries. A brooch is also a main part of the book. Adam's late grandfather, who had survived the Holocaust, had owned the brooch and wanted it to go to the woman he loved, a woman who was on a kibbutz. This is a must-read, can't-put-down kind of book. Hope's storytelling is masterful.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 348 reviews