BookTalk introduces readers to a carefully chosen, provocative selection of novels for reading and informal discussion, considering the author’s writing techniques and the character’s personal journeys. Readings include translations of books from other countries and cultures in the search for fictions that illuminate the lives and understanding of those from all across the globe.
This class focuses on Stone Yard Devotional (2024) by Charlotte Wood. Shortlisted for the Booker Prize, this novel is narrated by a burnt out middle-aged woman whose name is never revealed. For reasons that are unclear, she leaves her job and marriage in Sydney to return to her hometown of rural New South Wales where, despite being an atheist, she takes shelter in a convent. The comforting predictability of the nuns' daily routine is interrupted by a mouse infestation, the return of the remains of a deceased nun who was presumed to have been murdered, and a troubling visit from the narrator's past. The narrator's quiet meditations in her reclusive existence amplify the novel's themes of grief, forgiveness, and female friendship.
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