Shortlisted, The Booker Prize 2024
Shortlisted, Prime Minister's Literary Awards 2024
Shortlisted, The Age Book of the Year 2024
Shortlisted, Barbara Jefferis Award 2024
Shortlisted, Victorian Premier's Literary Awards 2024
Shortlisted, Prime Minister's Literary Awards 2024
Shortlisted, The Age Book of the Year 2024
Shortlisted, Barbara Jefferis Award 2024
Shortlisted, Victorian Premier's Literary Awards 2024
2024 Booker Prize Shortlist
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Stone Yard Devotional has been shortlisted for the 2024 Booker prize, alongside
Orbital by Samantha Harvey - winner
James by Percival Everett
Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner
The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden
Held by Anne Michaels
Orbital by Samantha Harvey - winner
James by Percival Everett
Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner
The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden
Held by Anne Michaels
What the 2024 Booker Prize judges said about Stone Yard Devotional
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How would you summarise this book in a sentence to encourage readers to pick it up?
Stone Yard Devotional is about one woman’s inward journey to make sense of the world and her life when conflicts and chaos are abundant in both realms. Set in a monastery in rural Australia, the novel is a fierce and philosophical interrogation of history, memory, nature, and human existence. Is there something unique about this book, something that you haven’t encountered in fiction before? The novel is set in a claustrophobic environment and reveals the vastness of human minds: the juxtaposition is so artfully done that a reader feels trusted by the author to be an intellectual partner in this exchange, rather than a passive recipient of stories and messages. What do you think it is about this book that readers will not only admire, but really love? Contemporary issues – climate change and a global pandemic – can sometimes appear as flat concepts or stale ideas in fiction, but Stone Yard Devotional is able to make both topics locally and vividly felt as haunting human stories. |
Can you tell us about any particular characters that readers might connect with, and why?
The protagonist, a middle-aged woman with seemingly unbreakable connections to the world – a career, a life partner, a solid place in life – decides to leave everything behind and seek a different life in a religious retreat. This measure, though drastic, may speak to many readers who are beset by a life that is livable but missing something. Although it’s a work of fiction, is there anything about it that’s especially relevant to issues we’re confronting in today’s world? The novel is set in the pandemic. The characters face the concrete and horrendous realities of climate change – unbearable heat and a rodent plague. The backdrop of the novel is the world we have to find a way to understand and the world we have to find a way to live in today and tomorrow. Is there one specific moment in the book that has stuck in your mind and, if so, why? The returning bones of a former nun, who was dramatically murdered and yet the drama is kept entirely off-stage, is one of the masterful strokes of the novel. But the nun is not a stranger… and without giving away the suspense, it’s one of the most chilling discoveries in the first reading. |
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'A quiet novel of immense power ... I have rarely been so absorbed, so persuaded by a novel ... Everything here – the way mice move, the way two women pass each other a confiding look, the way a hero can love the world but also be brusque and inconsiderate to those around them – it all rings true. It’s the story of a small group of people in a tiny town, but its resonance is global. This is a powerful, generous book.’
- Frank Cottrell Boyce, Guardian UK 'I loved Wood's Devotional - a very pure, plain-sung story involving nuns and mice (indeed, I remember that combination so fondly from school), it has a beautiful melancholy for the world. Which sounds a bit po-faced when it isn't. Also, technically, one of the best time shifts I have read in years, between sections 1 and 2. No lie - I gasped.' - Anne Enright, author via Instagram @thewrengirl 'Quiet but weighty, Stone Yard Devotional is all about the complicated task of loving the world and its creatures. No words can quite convey how much I loved this book. I am just so happy to have read it. ' - Karen Joy Fowler, author ‘The Australian writer Charlotte Wood does for mice in her seventh novel what Alfred Hitchcock did for birds… a beautiful, mature work that does not flinch from life.’ - Johanna Thomas-Corr, chief literary critic, Sunday Times UK 'Charlotte Wood's Stone Yard Devotional is remarkable - I'm still trying to figure out how she pulled it off. The best thing she's done.' - Tim Winton, author, Sydney Morning Herald ‘Totally compelling… nuns and the Australian outback are an unlikely formula for a page-turner, but I could not put it down… The narrator’s quiet reflections on life, and increasingly on death, add up to a satisfying account of an honest, questioning mind looking back over a lifetime’s decisions.’ - The Irish Examiner Click for Interviews and a summary of Stone Yard Devotional On Louise Bourgeois
HAS THE DAY INVADED THE NIGHT OR HAS THE NIGHT INVADED THE DAY? ART GALLERY NSW TILL APRIL APRIL 28 Charlotte Wood on Louise Bourgeois, The Saturday Paper, Dec 16 2023. THE DREAMING ZONE
'THE WEEKEND' at Belvoir St Theatre |
'This magnificent, radical novel ... gripped me from the opening line to the very last.'
- Helen Elliott, SMH/The Age 'A stunning work of fiction from a major writer who keeps getting better.' - Gretchen Shirm, The Australian 'A beautiful and masterful book especially for its ability to dwell within the confusion and complexity of all that it is questioning, and for all of its quiet force.' - Fiona Wright, Guardian Australia 'A book that extends and deepens Wood’s already remarkable achievements as a novelist in powerful and often profound ways.' - James Bradley, The Saturday Paper 'The consistently brilliant Wood delivers yet again.' - Jason Steger, Sydney Morning Herald 'Wood’s generous capacity for sustained attention is a gift to readers ... Stone Yard Devotional invites the kind of contemplation and pause that is rare in a world of constant distraction. Its slow pace is counterbalanced by the shafts of meaning that fall right through Wood’s lucid prose. Its stillness comes to feel less like a retreat and more like a radical practice, the soul-work of holding oneself accountable. If there is peace to be found here, it is hard won.' - Jennifer Mills, Australian Book Review 'Beautiful, strange and otherworldly' - Paula Hawkins, author ‘If you loved The Weekend, Stone Yard Devotional is a quieter, more thought-provoking read, that powerfully captures this time of change and contemplation. It will linger long after you turn the last page.’ - Sam Baker, The Shift with Sam Baker ‘Wry, unusual and beautifully written.’ - Wendy Holden, Daily Mail 
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