‘Stone Yard Devotional’ by Charlotte Wood    (2023)      293 pages

We never find out what specific events in her life drove this unnamed atheist woman to seek refuge in a Catholic convent for nuns in the Australian outback.

“You do not announce on Facebook that you, an atheist, are leaving your job and your home and your husband to join a cloistered religious community. I mean you could, and it might be a better way than I chose which was not to announce anything to anyone. People were wounded. Very wounded.”

The convent she chose was near where she grew up as a child. ‘Stone Yard Devotional’ is written as a diary of the time when this unnamed woman spent in the religious retreat. At the beginning she certainly is skeptical of Catholicism and mentions the some 9,000 children who died in Ireland’s church run homes for unwed mothers.

“Annette may be right about the unnaturalness of our living here in the way we do.

But then, I reflect, there’s probably something sick about the way most people live.”

During her time at this convent, there are three major visitations. The first is a huge mouse infestation. The nuns trap and poison the mice, but the mice just keep multiplying and get into their food and bedding.

“A dreadful discovery: birds are eating the poisoned mice. We have found five dead magpies and a southern boobook (must be an Australian bird)”

The second visitation is that of the dead Sister Jenny whose bones are only now being returned after she was murdered in Thailand several years ago.

The bones of Sister Jenny are accompanied by Sister Helen Parry, the third visitation, who grew up and attended high school with our diarist. Sister Helen was an outcast in high school but is now known as a strong advocate in the Church. Our diarist was one of the many students who shunned and treated Helen poorly in high school. Now, as an adult, Helen has learned to get by fine without others’ approval and therefore is powerful.

Because of those high school days, our diarist has a sense of guilt. Sometimes it is much less difficult to forgive someone else for some perceived wrong they have done to you than it is to forgive yourself for some wrong you have done to someone else.

“I’m not praying for her forgiveness,” she said. “I’m trying to find a shred of it in myself.”

An issue with the diary form is that it may seem like the diarist is only writing for her own benefit rather than for an audience. I did have that problem somewhat here when a scene was being related but I had lost attention several sentences ago.

Somehow I think that women will relate more to this woman’s story than will men. For one thing, there is only one male character who is rather peripheral.

But ‘Stone Yard Devotional’ does deal with some important issues including self forgiveness, and the novel presents them well.

Grade:    B+