Stone Yard Devotional

By: Charlotte Wood

Narrated by: Ailsa Piper

A woman abandons her city life and marriage to return to the place she grew up, finding solace 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 ruminates on her childhood in the nearby town. 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 the Stella Prize-winning author of The Natural Way of Things and The Weekend.

©2023 Charlotte Wood (P)2023 Allen and Unwin

Mice

This was chosen for my book club and I couldn’t find a hard copy so I went with Audible.

The story is slow, aimless, and filled with mice.

The reader has a smooth voice and was vet enjoyable.

You can find deeper meaning in this book amongst the hundreds of tributaries in the main story. But over all it was just boring to me.

Well Written, Authentic & Beautifully Narrated

This was an intimate contemplative, no BS reflection on grief and mortality in an otherworldly part of Australia during a very challenging time of the pandemic and mouse plague. My only criticism is that I felt the book ended rather suddenly and I expected to discover more about the character's past and in particular: why she chose to join the convent even as an atheist.

The honesty and simple words and sentences.

I liked how deeply meaningful the unembellished reflections rolled out across the simple story line and how it seemed so complete.

Emptiness and pestilence

The book didn’t resonate with me at all. The whole thing seemed bleak and empty, and the languid narration reinforced this. The narrator’s meandering thoughts never seemed to probe or engage. I never sensed any philosophical or psychological depth. Ironic that a group of women cohabitating in an abbey, presumably in search of meaning, seemed so disingenuous and shallow.