I really enjoyed reading Australian author Charlotte Wood’s latest novel, Stone Yard Devotional. In an interview at the Sydney Writers’ Festival, Charlotte called it a “quiet” book. It is not plot-driven, and the author doesn’t attempt cliffhangers or to get the reader to turn the page. Instead, it is exquisite writing in a calm setting. I loved lying down in bed to wind down from a busy day and settle into the story.
The main character is a middle-aged woman burnt out from a career of environmental activism and a recent divorce. She leaves Sydney to go back to her hometown in the dry plains of southern New South Wales and ends up living at a convent. The area Wood described reminded me of the sheep country south of Perth in Western Australia. Before Nadia and I had children, we lived in Perth for a couple of years. I think we even stayed a long weekend at a monastery there, so I could picture the setting easily. The woman joins a religious community, more for the rest than her beliefs. She likes the quiet lifestyle of working with her hands on the farm and going to prayers multiple times per day.
She spends time reflecting on her life. I could relate to her looking back at her parents and characters and events that happened in her small town when she was growing up. I am probably around the same age, and living into your late fifties gives you an insightful perspective. Charlotte Wood’s story has the major themes of forgiveness, retreat from the world, and grief. Experience a long life, all of us deal with the death of loved ones or people we can forgive, or acts that we seek forgiveness for.
Two plagues, one the COVID pandemic and the other a massive infestation of mice, form the backdrop of the story. The peace of the convent is broken with the arrival of an activist nun who is a former school classmate of the main character. She brings the remains of a former sister of the convent. She was unfortunately murdered in Thailand by a pastor while they were on a mission to serve the poor of that country. The nun is to bury the remains on the grounds of the farm surrounding the chapel.
It is not the typical kind of book that I read and I can’t remember now how I found the book on my digital library, but I am glad I read it.
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