Stone Yard Devotional
Shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2024
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3.7 • 128 Ratings
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
A deeply moving novel about forgiveness, grief, and what it means to be 'good', from the award-winning author of The Natural Way of Things and The Weekend.
SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE
SHORTLISTED FOR THE PRIME MINISTER'S LITERARY AWARD
SHORTLISTED FOR THE VICTORIAN PREMIER'S LITERARY AWARD
SHORTLISTED FOR THE AGE BOOK OF THE YEAR
SHORTLISTED FOR THE ABIA AWARD FOR LITERARY FICTION
SHORTLISTED FOR THE BARBARA JEFFERIS AWARD
LONGLISTED FOR THE MILES FRANKLIN LITERARY AWARD
BOOK OF THE YEAR, SYDNEY MORNING HERALD
BOOK OF THE YEAR, ABC
A woman abandons her city life and marriage to return to the place of her childhood, holing up in a small religious community hidden away on the stark plains of the Monaro.
She does not believe in God, doesn't know what prayer is, and finds herself living this strange, reclusive life almost by accident. As she gradually adjusts to the rhythms of monastic life, she finds herself turning again and again to thoughts of her mother, whose early death she can't forget.
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 left the community decades before to minister to deprived women in Thailand - then disappeared, presumed murdered.
Finally, a troubling visitor to the monastery pulls the narrator further back into her past.
With each of these disturbing arrivals, the woman faces some deep questions. Can a person be truly good? What is forgiveness? Is loss of hope a moral failure? And can the business of grief ever really be finished?
A meditative and deeply moving novel from one of Australia's most acclaimed and best loved writers.
'Extraordinary . . . a stunning work of fiction from a major writer who keeps getting better' THE AUSTRALIAN
'Remarkable . . . I'm still trying to figure out how she pulled it off. The best thing she's done' TIM WINTON, author of The Shepherd's Hut
'I have rarely been so absorbed by a novel . . . A powerful, generous book' GUARDIAN
'It extends and deepens Wood's already remarkable achievements as a novelist in powerful and often profound ways' THE SATURDAY PAPER
'A beautiful, mature work that does not flinch from life' SUNDAY TIMES
'A book about what it means to be good: simply and with great humility, it asks the big questions, leaving the reader feeling kinder, more brave, enlarged' ANNE ENRIGHT, author of The Wren, The Wren
'Beautiful, strange and otherworldly' PAULA HAWKINS, bestselling author of A Slow Fire Burning
'Both profound and addictively entertaining. I loved it' CLARE CHAMBERS, bestselling author of Small Pleasures
'No words can quite convey how much I loved this book' KAREN JOY FOWLER, author of Booth
'Wood joins the ranks of writers such as Nora Ephron, Penelope Lively and Elizabeth Strout.' THE GUARDIAN UK
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A woman joins a cloister of nuns in rural Australia in this artful outing from Wood (The Weekend), which was a finalist for this year's Booker Prize. The unnamed narrator's decision surprises her husband, from whom she is separated, as well as her friends and even herself, as she's an atheist. In spare, unadorned prose, Wood weaves the narrator's observations of the religious community's day-to-day life in New South Wales with memories of the past, particularly of the narrator's late mother. The plot is driven by a plague of mice at the abbey and the arrival of the remains of Sister Jenny, a former member who died while operating a women's shelter in Thailand. Accompanying Sister Jenny's bones is Sister Helen Parry, a famous environmentalist. Unbeknownst to the others, the narrator and Sister Helen Parry knew each other in high school, and their reunion brings up uneasy memories for both women. Woods's exercise in restraint elides obvious questions of faith and the existence of God, instead offering subtle insights on the nature of forgiveness and grief. It's an intriguingly secular tale of religious devotion.
Customer Reviews
Compassion
Is death the elephant in the room? Unseen when we are young, ignored as we live and, perhaps, even welcomed when we are old? I have been thinking about death more often over the past few years as I add to my list of reasons to see my doctor. Or should I say doctors! They say that 90% of our lifetime health care budget is spent in the last two years of our life. Of course, prognostically, that’s no help. We all live as long as we do.
I’d never really given it much thought before but now I wonder if religion is more about dying than living. Who knows? I’m a very casual philosopher indeed.
Two important things happened to me while I was reading “Stone Yard Devotional”, Charlotte Wood’s new book. The first was the sudden and unexpected death of a dear friend and the second was a thumbs up for a hip replacement. This combination of an abrupt ending and continuing hope dovetailed quite nicely into the book I was so enjoying.
“Stone Yard Devotional” is a diary of reflections, of memories, from the life of an unnamed narrator. Simple memories. Memories of events that might happen to us all, if we live long enough. The writing is simple, the story is simple, the events are simple but the effect, like life itself, is complex.
The older I am becoming the more I read, and the more I read the slower I read. The more I go back and reread a sentence that I like. It’s like reaching for another cream bun or vanilla slice. Just tasting the sentence again is delicious.
“Stone Yard Devotional” is delicious. The writing direct and satisfying. Very moving. Very relatable. Rather like thinking about our own life. The things you did. The things you should have done. Your failure to learn. Your difficulty really understanding another’s perspective. Your lack of compassion. Your lack of forgiveness. Oh, so so much.
The constant background in the book is religion. Does it help? Does it hinder? As with all the big questions in life the answers seem manifold; yes, no, maybe.
“Stone Yard Devotional”, for me, was like a human thread, picked up, followed for a while and then dropped back into some cosmic sewing box. I came away thinking, “Compassion. If I only have compassion, all will be well.”
Rye and dry as the stone yard
This novel left me with more interesting questions than easy answers. It wonderfully showed how we are often I’ll equiped or unformed to live our challenges and understanding grows with time and distance. That relationships between parents and children, friends or frenemies are complex and conflicted.
A great read that made me chuckle and go ouch with recognition of my own limitations.
Difficult read…
I struggled right to the very end of this book, I just couldn’t engage with it.