Book review: Stone Yard Devotional, Charlotte Wood

Stone Yard Devotional is one of those books that unexpectedly has a bigger impact than you might anticipate from the blurb on the back. Little wonder then that Charlotte Wood’s novel was shortlisted for the 2024 Booker Prize.

Set in Wood’s home country of Australia, Stone Yard Devotional is ostensibly about a woman who is feeling burnt out from her life in Sydney. So she returns to the tiny rural town where she grew up to take refuge in a religious community. So far, so ordinary in terms of plot.

But Stone Yard Devotional is far from ordinary. For one thing, we never learn the name of the woman. We also never really get the full picture of why she left Sydney and why she eventually decides not to go back. Instead, we get glimpses of her life and pieces of a puzzle that leaves quite a bit to the imagination.

Which makes for a great book club discussion, as everyone had different interpretations of the details that were left out. And what was in the book was highly readable, with vividly described landscapes and interesting characters. All worthy of lots of discussion.

Initially, Stone Yard Devotional reads like a diary, and while it continues in the first person throughout, the diary format fades as the woman becomes more enmeshed in the community of nuns she lives with, albeit as an atheist. Her days become more contemplative, and with it comes the quiet to revive past memories.

But then we hear about events that come to disrupt the peaceful, secluded life the woman has sought. A mouse infestation caused by climate change, which Woods writes about in graphic detail. So much so that I had to skim some sections! Then the return of the bones of a nun murdered overseas long ago, accompanied by another nun who the narrator knows from the past.

The latter events bring up a raft of further memories and feelings. Grief, pain, guilt. But the mouse infestation demonstrates what living this life is really about. Early in the book, the woman realises that ‘the work’ of the nuns is the repetitive prayers they undertake day after day. When the mice keep on coming, they don’t make a huge fuss. They just stoically and repetitively clear up the dead bodies and mess every day.

Stone Yard Devotional certainly isn’t a book for people who like hefty plots with twists and turns and a dramatic climax. But if you like a book that is quietly powerful and profound and will give you plenty to think about, then this is one for you.

Along with many of the books I read, I borrowed Stone Yard Devotional from my local library. But it’s also available from bookshops, including the charity Oxfam, which is Europe’s biggest retailer of second-hand books. For more book reviews, visit the Books section of my blog.