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Stone Yard Devotional

The 'exquisite, wrenching' novel [New York Times], shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2024

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Stone Yard Devotional

By: Charlotte Wood
Narrated by: Ailsa Piper
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Summary
 LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2024

The new novel by Charlotte Wood, the Stella Prize-winning author of The Natural Way of Things and The Weekend.

A fearless exploration of forgiveness, grief and the complicated beauty of female friendship.

Burnt out and in need of retreat, a middle-aged woman leaves Sydney to return to the place she grew up, finding solace in a small religious community hidden away on the stark plains of the Australian outback. She doesn't believe in God, or know what prayer is, and finds herself living this strange, reclusive existence almost by accident.

As she gradually adjusts to the rhythms of her new life, she ruminates on her childhood in the nearby town, turning again and again to thoughts of her mother, whose early death she can't forget.

But disquiet interrupts this secluded life with three visitations. First comes a terrible mouse plague, each day signalling a new battle against the rising infestation. Second is the return of the skeletal remains of a sister who disappeared decades before, presumed murdered. And finally, a troubling visitor plunges the narrator further back into her past.

'Both profound and addictively entertaining. I loved it'
CLARE CHAMBERS, bestselling author of Small Pleasures

'Beautiful, strange and otherworldly'
PAULA HAWKINS, bestselling author of A Slow Fire Burning

'Subtly powerful and utterly engrossing'
CLAIRE FULLER, bestselling author of Unsettled Ground

(P) 2023 Allen & Unwin©2023 Charlotte Wood Biographical Fiction Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Psychological Small Town & Rural Biography Heartfelt Tear-jerking
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Critic reviews

It's just as extraordinary as the whispers from abroad suggested . . . the quiet, intensely private voice of Stone Yard Devotional feels more intimate than a library of confessional novels . . . Wood has developed a style that relies on dislocation, juxtaposition and elision to suggest the currents of spiritual turmoil and resolution. A lesser artist would push too hard for tenderness, for meaning, for what Hemingway called "fake" mysticism . . . Ultimately, a strange sense of engagement with these pages gives way to sheer gratitude for the chance to be in the presence of such restraint and wisdom (Ron Charles)
I have rarely been so absorbed, so persuaded by a novel . . . Wood is a writer of the most intense attention. Everything here - the way mice move, the way two women pass each other a confiding look, the way a hero can love the world but also be brusque and inconsiderate to those around them - it all rings true. It's the story of a small group of people in a tiny town, but its resonance is global. This is a powerful, generous book (Frank Cottrell-Boyce)
An exquisite, wrenching novel of leaving your life behind . . . Activism, abdication, atonement, grace: In this novel no one of these paths is holier than another; Wood is more invested in noticing the human pursuit of holiness itself
[Wood's] exquisite meditations on dread and disillusionment about the future, familiar to many of us, had, for me, a heartening and consoling force. (Sigrid Nunez)
Australian writer Charlotte Wood does for mice in her seventh novel what Alfred Hitchcock did for birds . . . Wood has said that she wanted to write about forgiveness, but there is little here by way of comfort. What the novel does instead is to force you to recognise your deepest fears about decay, extinction and suffering. It's a beautiful, mature work that does not flinch from life (Johanna Thomas-Corr)
A good read - intense, weird, brooding - and a fascinating look at the need to strip our lives back
Unshowily explores forgiveness, accountability and despair in the face of the world's horrors (The best fiction of 2024)
This is a transfixing novel about the way childhood events, be they seismic or seemingly banal, can haunt us in adulthood. Wood pares back her narrator's life and language to explore fundamental questions of loss, suffering and how we coexist with other people, other species and the environment, with a power and precision that means it will resonate with readers long after this year's Booker Prize has been awarded
I'm a fan of Charlotte Wood and Stone Yard Devotional is my favourite - a character study in quiet strength (Laura Jean McKay, Writers pick the best reads of 2024)
All stars
Most relevant
So powerful. I finished it in one day. So meditative and made me look at life differently

Quality of writing and words

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An absolutely beautiful piece of contemplative writing. The narrator discusses her move back to her home town to join a monastic community. Despite an unclear faith and doubts about her ability to pray, she returns to face up to grief and sorrow, thinking deeply and carefully about her past life and the way she now lives. Her mother, such a loss to her, walks gently through the novel, living her life in retrospect, to her own values and standard.

This is not a gripping yarn but a beautiful exploration of grief and living a life as well as possible. Highly recommended.

Beautiful

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I disliked the threatening presence of the mouse plague which was gradually overrunning the Abbey.

The protagonist’s observations are interesting. Quite a sombre atmosphere but realistic experiences

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A novel about loss, grief and forgiveness set in Australia as a woman disappears from her life and into a monastic one very suddenly despite her lack of faith and with no notice. Over some time, she and the other sisters face the pain of their pasts as they are visited by a plague, and two sisters, one living and deceased all drawing out difficult moments of reflection and action for the community of women and our protagonist. Simply and beautifully told, with an honesty reflecting all her prejudice and regrets, this is a story where little is said, but much is felt and experienced. Loss is a lonely place to inhabit even when you are not alone.

Loss is a Lonely Place to Inhabit

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I really enjoyed this book. It took me a while to adjust to the slow pace but it is beautiful. Not strong on plot but very strong in the telling of memories and reconsideration of earlier times. It also deals with death and loss very sensitively. There is a sense of the interconnectedness of those who live in the same place.
I think this is a book that will be understood best by those in their later years as is the narrator.

Beautiful descriptions evoke place and people

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