Stone Yard Devotional: A Novel

Shortlisted for the 2024 Booker Prize, this novel by Charlotte Wood explores forgiveness, grief, and what it means to be good. A burnt-out middle-aged woman leaves Sydney to return to her childhood home, seeking refuge in a small religious community on the stark plains of rural Australia. Though she doesn't believe in God and has no experience with prayer, she finds herself living this strange, reclusive existence almost by accident. Her secluded life is interrupted by three significant events: a severe mouse plague that requires daily battle against the rising infestation; the discovery of skeletal remains belonging to a sister who disappeared decades before and was presumed murdered; and the arrival of a troubling visitor who draws her further into her past. The novel examines what it means to retreat from the world, the nature of forgiveness, and how grief affects the human soul.