Stone Yard Devotional

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, and 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? A meditative and deeply moving novel from the Stella Prize-winning author of The Natural Way of Things and The Weekend. The best thing she's done' TIM WINTON, author of The Shepherd's Hut 'I have rarely been so absorbed by a novel . . . A powerful, generous book' GUARDIAN 'It extends and deepens Wood's already remarkable achievements as a novelist in powerful and often profound ways' THE SATURDAY PAPER 'A beautiful, mature work that does not flinch from life' SUNDAY TIMES 'A book about what it means to be good: simply and with great humility, it asks the big questions, leaving the reader feeling kinder, more brave, enlarged' ANNE ENRIGHT, author of The Wren, The Wren 'Beautiful, strange and otherworldly' PAULA HAWKINS, bestselling author of A Slow Fire Burning 'Both profound and addictively entertaining. I loved it' CLARE CHAMBERS, bestselling author of Small Pleasures 'No words can quite convey how much I loved this book' KAREN JOY FOWLER, author of Booth 'Wood joins the ranks of writers such as Nora Ephron, Penelope Lively and Elizabeth Strout.' THE GUARDIAN UK