Nov 18

Nov 18 Stone Yard Devotional

About the book

Author: Charlotte Wood
Publisher: Riverhead (US edition coming February 2025)

More info:
The StoryGraph | Goodreads
Note: Content and trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the review.

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Bookshop.org (print) | Libro .fm (audio)

My Review

I’m glad that Stone Yard Devotional made its way onto the Booker Prize longlist (and shortlist!), or else I may not have ended up reading it, and that certainly would have been a shame.

The book is about an unnamed Australian woman who has abandoned her life to live at a convent, not because she is religious but because she is burned out and craves a quieter existence. It takes place largely during the pandemic, as they are simultaneously hosting an unexpected long-term visitor, mourning someone from their past, and fighting a literal plague of mice (which apparently really happened??). The narration flashes backward and forward in time to examine the value of a quiet life and the permanency of grief.

The book is very atmospheric and effective at striking the hushed, reflective tone and mood it’s going for, which makes the experience of reading the book feel like an in-between place just like the convent itself is. I also found the mouse plague to be extremely effective; it was gross and poignant and appropriately allegorical — instead of feeling on the nose (given that they’re at a convent and it’s pretty clearly a biblical allusion), it feels exactly right.

I don’t know if it will stick with me long-term, but I definitely enjoyed my time reading it. If you’re curious about it, I say pick it up!