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y separately published work icon Stone Yard Devotional single work   novel  
Issue Details: First known date: 2023... 2023 Stone Yard Devotional
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'A woman abandons her city life and marriage to return to the place she grew up, finding solace in a small religious community hidden away on the stark plains of the Monaro. She does not believe in God, doesn't know what prayer is & finds herself living this strange, reclusive life almost by accident. As she gradually adjusts to the rhythms of monastic life, she ruminates on her childhood in the nearby town. She finds herself turning again and again to thoughts of her mother, whose early death she can't forget. Disquiet interrupts this secluded life with three visitations. First comes a terrible mouse plague, each day signalling a new battle against the rising infestation. Second is the return of the skeletal remains of a sister who left the community decades before to minister to deprived women in Thailand, then disappeared, presumed murdered. Finally, a troubling visitor to the monastery pulls the narrator further back into her past. With each of these disturbing arrivals, the woman faces some deep questions. Can a person be truly good? What is forgiveness? Is loss of hope a moral failure? And can the business of grief ever really be finished?' (Publication summary) 

Notes

  • Author's note: For Jane Palfreyman

    Epigraph: 'I felt chastened by the world.' - Nick Cave

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Crows Nest, North Sydney - Lane Cove area, Sydney Northern Suburbs, Sydney, New South Wales,: Allen and Unwin , 2023 .
      image of person or book cover 4117495687447749582.jpg
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      Extent: 312p.
      Note/s:

      •  Published October 2023

      ISBN: 9781761069499
VIEW PUBLICATION DETAILS FOR ALL VERSIONS ()

Other Formats

  • Large print.
  • Sound recording.
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Works about this Work

Books Reviews : Tell Her She’s Dreamin’, Stone Yard Devotional, Strangely Enough Rosie Ofori Ward , Laura Pettenuzzo , Alan Vaarwerk , 2023 single work review
— Appears in: Kill Your Darlings [Online] , December 2023;
— Review of Tell Her She's Dreamin' : A Memoir for Ambitious Girls Simone Amelia Jordan , 2023 single work autobiography ; Stone Yard Devotional Charlotte Wood , 2023 single work novel ; Strangely Enough 2023 anthology short story
Charlotte Wood's Latest Novel Stone Yard Devotional Tackles Unresolved Grief and a Mouse Plague Nicola Heath , 2023 single work column
— Appears in: ABC News [Online] , December 2023;

'In 2022, Charlotte Wood had just finished the first draft of her new novel, Stone Yard Devotional, when she received the terrible news that her older sister had breast cancer.'
y separately published work icon Charlotte Wood on the Difference between Hope and Courage Astrid Edwards (interviewer), 2023 27247492 2023 single work podcast interview

'Charlotte Wood has won the Stella Prize and the Prime Minister's Literary Award (as well as many other awards). She is the author of ten books - seven novels and three non-fiction works. Her latest novel is Stone Yard Devotional, which she describes as an 'interior' and 'austere' work, and her most personal work of fiction to date.' (Production summary)
Naming the Bones : A Meditation on Consequence and Care Jennifer Mills , 2023 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , December no. 460 2023; (p. 39)
— Review of Stone Yard Devotional Charlotte Wood , 2023 single work novel

''Arrive finally at about three.’ The opening sentence of Charlotte Wood’s seventh novel does a lot in five simple words, emblematic of her gift for compression. With the direct, truncated prose of a diary entry, we are suddenly on intimate terms with another mind, impatient to begin. The unnamed narrator is a woman alone, returning to the country town where she grew up and where her parents are buried. ‘Your bones are here, beneath my feet,’ she thinks, standing at their graves for the first time in thirty-five years. So begins her reckoning.' (Introduction)          

The Burden of Hope in Charlotte Wood's Stone Yard Devotional Juliette Hughes , 2023 single work review
— Appears in: Eureka Street , 13 November vol. 33 no. 22 2023;
— Review of Stone Yard Devotional Charlotte Wood , 2023 single work novel
Stone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood Review – A Masterful Novel of Quiet Force Fiona Wright , 2023 single work review
— Appears in: The Guardian Australia , 3 October 2023;
— Review of Stone Yard Devotional Charlotte Wood , 2023 single work novel 'Set at a rural Australian monastery, with a minimal plot and a looming climate catastrophe, this is a book of introspection – and of despair'
‘Ballsy’, ‘very Funny’, ‘read in One Sitting’ : The Best Australian Books Out in October Alyx Gorman , Imogen Dewey , Fiona Wright , Sian Cain , Lucy Clark , Yvonne C Lam , Janine Israel , Celina Ribeiro , Ben Doherty , 2023 single work review
— Appears in: The Guardian Australia , 4 October 2023;
— Review of Edenglassie Melissa Lucashenko , 2023 single work novel ; Stone Yard Devotional Charlotte Wood , 2023 single work novel ; Late : A Novel Michael Fitzgerald Page , 2023 single work novel ; Killing for Country : A Family Story David Marr , 2023 multi chapter work criticism ; Gunflower Laura Jean McKay , 2023 selected work short story ; The Man Who Wasn't There Dan Box , 2023 single work biography ; Home to Biloela Priya Nadesalingam , Rebekah Holt , 2023 single work autobiography
Charlotte Wood Stone Yard Devotional James Bradley , 2023 single work review
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 21-27 October 2023;
— Review of Stone Yard Devotional Charlotte Wood , 2023 single work novel

'In the opening pages of Charlotte Wood’s new novel, the narrator takes a detour to the cemetery outside the town where she grew up. She is there to visit her parents’ graves for the first time in 35 years, although that process is complicated by her difficulty locating them and by the discovery somebody left “ugly plastic flowers” by their headstones. As she walks away the narrator recalls the phone call she received to tell her that her mother’s headstone was ready, “my outsides unaltered but everything within me plummeting. Like a sandbank collapsing inside me.”' (Introduction)   
Melissa Lucashenko, Christos Tsiolkas, Charlotte Wood and Other Best New Books Released in October, Selected by Avid Readers and Critics Kate Evans , Sarah L'Estrange , Declan Fry , Cher Tan , 2023 single work review
— Appears in: ABC News [Online] , October 2023;
— Review of Edenglassie Melissa Lucashenko , 2023 single work novel ; Stone Yard Devotional Charlotte Wood , 2023 single work novel ; The In-Between Christos Tsiolkas , 2023 single work novel
The Bare Beauty of a Cloistered Life Gretchen Shirm , 2023 single work review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 21-22 October 2023; (p. 13)
— Review of Stone Yard Devotional Charlotte Wood , 2023 single work novel
Space for Questions in Charlotte Wood’s Stone Yard Devotional Tessa Wooldridge , 2023 single work column
— Appears in: Thoughts from an Idle Hour 2015-;

'Space for Questions' uses quotes from Charlotte Wood's Stone Yard Devotional together with related questions to probe the book's themes. The content is suitable for use by book clubs.
y separately published work icon Charlotte Wood Thinks Restraint Is Underrated Michael Williams (interviewer), 2023 27121142 2023 single work podcast interview

'Charlotte Wood became a mainstay in Australia’s literary firmament in 2015 following the release of her award-winning novel, The Natural Way of Things. Her latest book, Stone Yard Devotional, is her most personal yet. It’s a meditation on grief, solitude, what it means to live a good life, and what we owe one another. This week, Michael sits down with Charlotte to discuss her new book, and she shares the psychic catastrophe that informed its final form.' (Production summary)
y separately published work icon Charlotte Wood on the Difference between Hope and Courage Astrid Edwards (interviewer), 2023 27247492 2023 single work podcast interview

'Charlotte Wood has won the Stella Prize and the Prime Minister's Literary Award (as well as many other awards). She is the author of ten books - seven novels and three non-fiction works. Her latest novel is Stone Yard Devotional, which she describes as an 'interior' and 'austere' work, and her most personal work of fiction to date.' (Production summary)
Charlotte Wood's Latest Novel Stone Yard Devotional Tackles Unresolved Grief and a Mouse Plague Nicola Heath , 2023 single work column
— Appears in: ABC News [Online] , December 2023;

'In 2022, Charlotte Wood had just finished the first draft of her new novel, Stone Yard Devotional, when she received the terrible news that her older sister had breast cancer.'
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Awards

VIEW ALL AWARDS (5)
Last amended 23 Nov 2023 13:29:26
Subjects:
Settings:
  • Monaro, Cooma area, Cooma - Snowy - Bombala area, Southeastern NSW, New South Wales,
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