SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2024THE NEW NOVEL BY THE AWARD-WINNING AUTHOR OF THE WEEKENDA Book of the Year for the Guardian, Sydney Morning Herald and ABC''The fact that Stone Yard Devotional not only stays aloft but soars would seem to deny the laws of literary physics''RON CHARLES, WASHINGTON POST''A beautiful, mature work that does not flinch from life''SUNDAY TIMES''Exquisite, wrenching''NEW YORK TIMES''A transfixing novel''FINANCIAL TIMES''I have rarely been so absorbed by a novel . . . A powerful, generous book''GUARDIAN''It leaves 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 PleasuresBurnt out and in need of retreat, a middle-aged woman leaves Sydney to return to the place she grew up, taking refuge in a small religious community hidden away on the stark plains of rural Australia. She doesn''t believe in God, or know what prayer is, and finds herself living this strange, reclusive existence almost by accident.But 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 disappeared decades before, presumed murdered. And finally, a troubling visitor plunges the narrator further back into her past.Shortlisted for the Victorian Premier''s Literary AwardShortlisted for The Age Book of the YearShortlisted for the ABIA Award for Literary FictionLonglisted for the Miles Franklin AwardPRAISE FOR CHARLOTTE WOOD''S THE WEEKEND A Sunday Times ''Best Book for Summer 2021''A Times, Observer, Independent, Daily Express and Good Housekeeping Book of the Year''So great I am struggling to find the words to do it justice . . . Wood is an agonisingly gifted writer. I am now going to read all her other books''MARIAN KEYES''A rare pleasure''SUNDAY TIMES''A perfect, funny, insightful novel about women, friendship and ageing''NINA STIBBE''Glorious . . . Charlotte Wood joins the ranks of writers such as Nora Ephron, Penelope Lively and Elizabeth Strout''GUARDIAN''Triumphantly brings to life the honest inner lives of women''INDEPENDENT''A lovely, lively, intelligent, funny book''TESSA HADLEY