The past comes knocking in Charlotte Wood’s fearless exploration of forgiveness, grief and female friendship
Burnt out and in need of retreat, a middle-aged woman leaves Sydney to return to the place she grew up, taking refuge 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 a strange, reclusive existence almost by accident.
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…
Stone Yard Devotional was longlisted for the Booker Prize 2024.
Charlotte Wood
About the Author
Charlotte Wood lives in Sydney. She is the author of seven novels and three works of non-fictionA woman settles into a monastery in rural Australia and discovers that no shelter is impermeable. This novel thrilled and chilled the judges
— The 2024 judges on Stone Yard Devotional