UC Book Club - Stone Yard Devotional

The UC Book Club will next meet on  Wednesday, May 27, at 4:30 p.m via Google Meet to discuss Stone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood, an author from Australia.  The middle-aged narrator of the novel has dropped out of her marriage and an environmental activism career.  When she retreats to her rural roots in New South Wales, she becomes, almost by accident, a member of a small, reclusive convent.  At first she finds solace despite her essential irreligiosity, but as she searches for purpose, she must confront her conflicted past through the strange crises in the convent.  These include a mouse plague, the arrival of the bones of a murdered nun, and the appearance of an activist nun who embodies the narrator’s guilty past.  A New York Times review by Lauren Christensen notes "'activism, abdication, atonement, grace: in this novel no one of these paths is holier than another; [author] Wood is more invested in noticing the human pursuit of holiness itself.'"  Kirkus in its starred review adds that the book is "'[a] wise, consoling novel for disquieting times.'" Stone Yard Devotional was short-listed for the 2024 Booker Prize.

And be watching through the summer for the next books selected by the Club.

As always, email Kathy Fish at Kathy.fish [at] ucumberlands.edu (Kathy[dot]fish[at]ucumberlands[dot]edu) to be added to the Google Meet invitation list.