The Bell Now

Stone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood
Riverhead Books, February 1, 2025

Many people think about changing their lives, but only some have the courage or capacity to follow through. For most, life change comes about by accident, as is the case for the narrator of Charlotte Wood’s resonant Stone Yard Devotional when she returns to her home town in New South Wales after decades away in Sydney. Feeling that her world is on fire, the unnamed environmentalist leaves her personal and professional ties for a simpler, if no less challenging, existence in a convent on the plains. On the way to this remote place, she stops to visit the graves of her parents, buried years prior in a rustic cemetery unchanged by time. Far from her cosmopolitan life on the first night in a convent cabin, she enjoys a silence “so thick” it makes her feel “wealthy” and experiences an emptiness at dusk after Vespers that is “shockingly peaceful.” Although she herself is not religious, the rituals upheld by those around her, along with the mundane tasks assigned to her, an unstoppable plague of mice, and an unexpected vigil, fill her with wonder and give her a new sense of purpose. “I’m growing accustomed to the bell now, that rings for the nuns at each of the liturgical hours,” she says. “It’s not meant for us civilians, but I hear its faint sound coming from the sisters’ quarters beyond the church, and find myself listening for it.” The new year brings reflection, new vows, and heartfelt promises; this novel is an excellent companion text by which to navigate a tumultuous world.