Stone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood

Reading Charlotte Wood’s Stone Yard Devotional was a wonderful way to start the new year. The recommendation came from Julie, my kindergarten friend, and I am grateful for the suggestion. Shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2024, this contemplative novel describes one woman’s effort to come to terms with her life. Much of the story’s strength lies in Wood’s beautiful writing and her remarkable ability to give meaning to all that is unspoken.

The narrator of Stone Yard Devotional is an unnamed woman who find herself amid a personal crisis. This is not the impulsive, reckless midlife crisis often depicted in fiction; rather it is a profound moral reckoning.  Having left both her husband and her job in Sydney, she seeks solitude and reflection in an isolated religious community in New South Wales, close to where she grew up.  Although she does not consider herself religious, she discovers a sense of peace through the daily rituals and practices of the nuns with whom she now lives. The story is intentionally sparse in its cast of characters and plot developments. Some might say little happens, but in the empty quiet space of her new life, the narrator has time to think. Her thoughtful and incisive reflections form the inner engine that propels the book forward.

Throughout the novel, the narrator contemplates the choices she has made and the ways she’s treated people over the course of her life.  The enduring weight of grief and guilt over her parents ‘deaths is a constant presence in her thoughts. Meanwhile the minor events and conflicts within the community take on new meaning. Ultimately the book is a mediation on both living and dying. The slow pace and emotional clarity of Stone Yard Devotional make the novel feel almost like a meditation. A thoughtful and moving read. 4.5/5