Stone Yard Devotional - Charlotte Wood

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 New South Wales. 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 shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2024.