Review of Stone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood

Charlotte Wood's literary fiction is quiet and meditative but packs a punch. Stone Yard Devotional concerns a woman who leaves her Sydney life behind to live among nuns as an unbeliever committed to the community. The past crops up in significant ways, and external judgment seems to be cast upon them all.

The main protagonist (who is not named) in Charlotte Wood's literary fiction Stone Yard Devotional is a middle-aged woman who leaves Sydney for some respite in her rural Australian hometown. Although both of her parents have passed away (they are buried nearby), she has little else to connect her to this place. She seeks out a small nearby religious community, although she does not believe in God and has not attended church.

Despite her unbelief, she finds herself drawn to the structure of the nuns' days--prayer, church services, hymns, and a meditative life within simple surroundings. Without intentionally choosing to stay, she simply never returns to Sydney, thereby abandoning her former life--including her husband, who she had been growing apart from, her friends, and her work. She lives within the nuns' orbit, taking on gardening and cooking duties for the group. She remains agnostic and therefore exists spiritually adjacent to the nuns yet in daily tasks and time spent together, she is fully entrenched in their world.

A male (and married) acquaintance from her youth helps with the land and with handyman duties; there is an odd current--at least on the part of our main protagonist--that feels unresolved. A larger, more powerful unresolved situation revolves around a woman who has risen high in the ranks of the Catholic church through activism on a global scale. As a girl she was from the community, had a mentally ill and abusive mother, and endured cruelties from her classmates, including our main character. Her return seems destined to bring up past conflicts, and our main protagonist is left feeling adrift when time passes and they don't directly address their connection.

A community-wide infestation of mice feels like a plague and occurs just as the remains of a nun from the past are returned to the premises (without permission to bury her peacefully). Wood explores themes of punishment and atonement, permission and rebellion, spirituality and unbelief, and bonds and distance grown due to long-ago proximity.

This is a quiet story with deep wells of significance and meaning beneath the peaceful surface. I loved it.

More from This Author

Charlotte Wood is also the author of The Natural Way of Things, The Weekend, and other novels.