Stone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood
A middle-aged woman leaves Sydney to spend several days in a religious community located in the town where she grew up. Far away from her family, she finds rest in the landscape of rural Australia and the quiet lives of the nuns who surround her at her retreat. She’s not sure why she’s there. She doesn’t believe in God and has no idea what prayer even feels like. But ultimately, she is touched by the people she meets and the solace she experiences in this strange place.
Years later, she returns to the secluded religious community, unsure why she’s decided to spend her twilight years in such an isolated place that she doesn’t even understand. But she finds a home there managing the cooking and food sourcing for the nuns. The world begins to shift for her when, seemingly out of nowhere, a plague of mice descends upon the whole state. They’re in her kitchen, her bedroom, and even her car. She fears the telltale “squish” as she enters a room. The mice chew through food bins, power cords, and even plastic pipes. At the same time, the remains of a nun who died abroad are finally being returned to Australia, and plans are made to lay her to rest in the community. Our protagonist can’t help but wonder who this nun was and why she is finally being returned home.
Stone Yard Devotional is a quiet novel that packs a punch. I went into the book knowing very little about the story, but I was hooked from the first few pages. There’s this quiet strength to Charlotte Wood’s writing. She embodies the protagonist’s perspective that you truly feel like you’re in her head. As the story progresses, we see her change over the course of time and interrogate her own perspective on her past and her present. And when the mice descend—my goodness—I felt all of the community’s bewilderment and anxiety at this strange plague. The characters and their interactions truly make the novel shine. They are all so different but thrown together in such unforeseen circumstances; the characters’ friction grows throughout the story.
Stone Yard Devotional is perfect for anyone who loves a book around weird happenings, great characters, and beautiful prose.
