Stone Yard Devotional

A Novel

De: Charlotte Wood

Narrado por: Ailsa Piper

Shortlisted for the 2024 Booker Prize, a novel about forgiveness, grief, and what it means to be good, from the award-winning author of The Weekend.

“Stone Yard Devotional is as extraordinary as you’ve heard.” —Ron Charles, The Washington Post

“An exquisite, wrenching novel of leaving your life behind.” —Lauren Christensen, New York Times

"Meditative (but by no means uneventful)." —New York Times

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 rural Australia. She doesn't believe in God, or know what prayer is, and finds herself living this strange, reclusive existence almost by accident.

But disquiet interrupts this secluded life with three visitations. First comes a terrible mouse plague, each day signaling 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.

Meditative, moving, and finely observed, Stone Yard Devotional is a seminal novel from a writer of rare power, exploring what it means to retreat from the world, the true nature of forgiveness, and the sustained effect of grief on the human soul.

Quiet and powerful

The author allows us into the complex interior life of the protagonist and the sanctuary she’d been drawn to. Questions about life, responsibility, awareness, and death are seamlessly integrated into the narrative. Beautiful, insightful writing.

Beautiful and interesting story

I thoroughly enjoyed this quiet, thoughtful story. It is one woman's experience and reminiscences on life and nature set in a unique time of pandemic, yet able to be separate from the chaos of the world. The narration was excellent and I would highly recommend this book.

Food for thought

I appreciated that it didn’t tie up the action in a neat bow but let the reader ponder and speculate

High quality but sad throughout

This book is very well written. Mainly a series of vignettes with some ongoing plot strands. About half way through I started to think this is a book I would recommend to all my friends. However, I was hoping for something more uplifting, and it is just too sad for me to recommend to my friend group. The main character has a lot of time to reflect on her life, and almost all of her memories are about people treating each other quite badly. Although by the end she gains some inner resolution of what troubles her, I didnt find it uplifting, That said, it really is excellent storytelling and creation of the sense of place. If you are good with sad realism add a star.

Gorgeous, meditative, provocative

I wasn’t sure at first if I would enjoy this as reading about religious retreats is not my thing and I’m not a fan of the Catholic Church. But I was hooked by the narrative voice, the lyrical writing, and heartfelt dilemmas at this novel’s core. How do we manage the multiple anxieties that have become part of daily life for so many of us? What does it mean to retreat? There will always be weather, memories, our aging and its attendant powers and fears. Mice infestations can come for us all. I started listening one day and finished it the next. Will surely reread and recommend to others.

Subtle and real

The narrator’s voice was really soothing. The story was as much an homage to the narrator’s mother and her mother’s kind nurturing ways as anything. Wise women both mother and daughter. Loved it!

A profound inward journey

If you told me I’d be praising a book about Catholic nuns, I would have turned my nose up and laughed. This is book is about Catholic nuns, and I loved it! It’s really about a woman’s journey to find peace—she hadn’t recovered from her mother’s death from many years ago. Ironically, it wasn't spiritual in the sense of higher power etc. Instead it was about a woman facing herself and her feelings. Not for the faint hearted but compassionately written in wonderful images. It’s one of the most profound books I’ve read.

Pleasant, soft cadence

Highly spiritual, reverent and meaningful story. Opportunity for thought and reflection about life's experience. Many lessons.

Reads like a memoir, not fiction (main character is very believable)

More of an internal meditation than a plot-driven novel, but the quiet tone hooked me. The historical tie-in to a real infestation of mice that impacted all aspects of daily life in affected areas was simultaneously metaphorical, creepy, and quietly compelling. And the struggle to repatriate and then appropriately dispose of the remains of a member of the community who had disappeared many years before also seemed to underscore the idea that examining and coming to grips with past trauma is essential to human experience, even in the most regulated and outwardly orderly life.

Fearless reflection on shame, grief & love.

A masterful meditation on the past and present with a fiercely honest voice. Thank you, Charlotte Wood.