Charlotte Wood

Two women awaken from a drugged sleep to find themselves imprisoned in an abandoned property in the middle of a desert in a story of two friends, sisterly love and courage - a gripping, starkly imaginative exploration of contemporary misogyny and corporate control, and of what it means to hunt and be hunted.

The Natural Way of Things

"For nearly four decades, lifelong friends Jude, Wendy, Adele, and Sylvie have seen each other through romances, child-rearing, changing careers, divorces, medical recoveries, and general aging. But now Sylvie has died, and the three remaining women are tasked with cleaning out her beach house before it's sold. Thrust together in this weathered old house on the ocean, where the ghosts of their younger selves compete with their current realities, the women ponder a collective lifetime of loves and grievances, disappointments and successes, and ultimately, how a life can change in a single unexpected instant--or over the course of a weekend."--

The Weekend

A woman abandons her city life and marriage to return to the place she grew up, finding solace in a small religious community hidden away on the stark plains of the Monaro.

She does not believe in God, doesn't know what prayer is, and finds herself living this strange, reclusive life almost by accident. As she gradually adjusts to the rhythms of monastic life, she ruminates on her childhood in the nearby town. She finds herself turning again and again to thoughts of her mother, whose early death she can't forget.

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 left the community decades before to minister to deprived women in Thailand - then disappeared, presumed murdered.

Finally, a troubling visitor to the monastery pulls the narrator further back into her past.

With each of these disturbing arrivals, the woman faces some deep questions. Can a person be truly good? What is forgiveness? Is loss of hope a moral failure? And can the business of grief ever really be finished?

A meditative and deeply moving novel from the Stella Prize-winning author of The Natural Way of Things and The Weekend.

Stone Yard Devotional 

An inspiring work about creativity and resilience from the multi-award-winning author of The Weekend.

Creativity, Resilience and the Inner Life

The Luminous Solution

The hilarious, tender and heartbreaking story of a watershed day in the life of Stephen - aimless, unhappy and unfulfilled, this stiflingly hot December day is the day he has decided to dump his girlfriend. A sharply observed, 24-hour urban love story.

Animal People

Charlotte Wood's online journal The Writer's Room has become essential reading for writers at all stages of their careers, and also pure reading pleasure for booklovers everywhere. Charlotte's interviews with a wide range of well-known writers range in topic from the subject matter of the writers' work to quite intricate - and intimate - revelations about the ways in which they work. Charlotte's subjects are frank about the failures and successes, the struggles and triumphs of the writing life, and extremely generous in their revelations. A must-read for writers and readers. 'For writers, an indispensable resource; for readers, a pure pleasure.' - Geordie Williamson, chief literary critic, The Australian 'It's The Paris Review for Australians - how lucky we are to have it.' - Tegan Bennett Daylight, literary critic; author Six Bedrooms, Safety, What Falls Away 'These interviews have consistently provided me with the the best descriptions of a writer's craft I could hope to find. Invaluable.' - Sophie Cunningham, author Bird and Geography 'Lets its readers eavesdrop on the best of conversations - erudite, interesting, always inspirational.' - Ashley Hay, author The Railwayman's Wife 'Interviews of grit and stamina - real talk between two adult writers about the hard yards of writing. There's never an issue that doesn't provide an insight worth bottling.' - Ailsa Piper, author Sinning Across Spain

The Writer's Room

A short, sharp shock of a novel that takes you into the heart of a family that's as normal, and broken, as any other. From the author of The Submerged Cathedral, shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award.

The Children

The award-winning author of THE CHILDREN and ANIMAL PEOPLE, explores the solitary and shared pleasures of cooking and eating in an ode to good food, prepared and presented with minimum fuss and maximum love. What's important is the fact of eating together - the gathering at the table, the conviviality. LOVE AND HUNGER is a distillation of everything Charlotte Wood has learned over more than twenty years about cooking and the pleasures of simple food well made. In this age of gastro-porn and the fetishisation of food, the pressure to be as expert as the chefs we've turned into celebrities can feel overwhelming. An instant antidote to such madness is this wise and practical book - an ode to good food, prepared and presented with minimum fuss and maximum love. Cooking represents 'creativity in its purest form'. It is meditation and stimulation, celebration and solace, a gift both offered and received. It can nourish the soul - and the mind - as well as the body. LOVE AND HUNGER will make you long to get into the kitchen to try the surprising tips and delicious recipes, and will leave you feeling freshly inspired to cook with joy for the people you love. LOVE AND HUNGER is a gift for all who value the solitary and shared pleasures of cooking and eating. Like a simple but glorious meal, this feast of a book is infused with warmth and generosity. Acclaimed and award-winning novelist Charlotte Wood also writes the popular cookery blog How to Shuck an Oyster and is a brilliant home cook and food enthusiast. An invitation to dinner at Charlotte's house is always cause for celebration.

Thoughts on the Gift of Food

Love and Hunger

“The Handmaid’s Tale for our age” (The Economist), this dystopian tale about a group of women held prisoner in the Australian desert is a prescient feminist fable and international classic from the Booker-shortlisted author of Stone Yard Devotional and The Weekend. Two women awaken from a drugged sleep to find themselves imprisoned in a broken-down property in the middle of a desert. Strangers to each other, they have no idea where they are or how they came to be there with eight other women, their heads shaved, guarded by two inept yet vicious jailers. Doing hard labor under a sweltering sun, the prisoners soon learn what links them: in each woman's past is a sexual scandal with a powerful man. They pray for rescue but as the hours turn into days and the days into weeks and months, it becomes clear that the women must rescue themselves. The Natural Way of Things is a lucid and illusory fable and a brilliantly plotted novel of ideas that reminds us of humankind's own vast contradictions—the capacity for savagery, selfishness, resilience, and redemption all contained by a single, vulnerable body.

A Novel

A NEW YORK TIMES TOP TEN BOOK OF THE YEAR A WASHINGTON POST TOP TEN BOOK OF THE YEAR A LOS ANGELES TIMES TOP FIFTEEN BOOK OF THE YEAR Shortlisted for the 2024 Booker Prize, a novel about forgiveness, grief, and what it means to be good, from the award-winning author of The Weekend. “Stone Yard Devotional is as extraordinary as you’ve heard.” —The Washington Post “An exquisite, wrenching novel of leaving your life behind.” —New York Times Book Review "Meditative (but by no means uneventful)." —New York Times "Riveting prose about how humans beat back despair."—Los Angeles Times Burnt 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 signaling 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. Meditative, moving, and finely observed, Stone Yard Devotional is a seminal novel from a writer of rare power, exploring what it means to retreat from the world, the true nature of forgiveness, and the sustained effect of grief on the human soul.

Stone Yard Devotional

Shortlisted for the 2024 Booker Prize, a novel about forgiveness, grief, and what it means to be good. Burnt 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 signaling 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. Meditative, moving, and finely observed, Stone Yard Devotional is a seminal novel from a writer of rare power, exploring what it means to retreat from the world, the true nature of forgiveness, and the sustained effect of grief on the human soul.

From the Booker Prize-Shortlisted Author of Stone Yard Devotional

The Natural Way of Things 10th Anniversary Edition

Two women awaken from a drugged sleep to find themselves imprisoned in an abandoned property in the middle of a desert in a story of two friends, sisterly love and courage - a gripping, starkly imaginative exploration of contemporary misogyny and corporate control, and of what it means to hunt and be hunted. Joint winner of the Prime Minister's Literary Awards 2016 - Fiction category Winner of the 2016 Stella Prize She hears her own thick voice deep inside her ears when she says, 'I need to know where I am.' The man stands there, tall and narrow, hand still on the doorknob, surprised. He says, almost in sympathy, 'Oh, sweetie. You need to know what you are.' Two women awaken from a drugged sleep to find themselves imprisoned in a broken-down property in the middle of nowhere. Strangers to each other, they have no idea where they are or how they came to be there with eight other girls, forced to wear strange uniforms, their heads shaved, guarded by two inept yet vicious armed jailers and a 'nurse'. The girls all have something in common, but what is it? What crime has brought them here from the city? Who is the mysterious security company responsible for this desolate place with its brutal rules, its total isolation from the contemporary world? Doing hard labour under a sweltering sun, the prisoners soon learn what links them: in each girl's past is a sexual scandal with a powerful man. They pray for rescue -- but when the food starts running out it becomes clear that the jailers have also become the jailed. The girls can only rescue themselves. The Natural Way of Things is a gripping, starkly imaginative exploration of contemporary misogyny and corporate control, and of what it means to hunt and be hunted. Most of all, it is the story of two friends, their sisterly love and courage. With extraordinary echoes of The Handmaid's Tale and Lord of the Flies, The Natural Way of Things is a compulsively readable, scarifying and deeply moving contemporary novel. It confirms Charlotte Wood's position as one of our most thoughtful, provocative and fearless truth-tellers, as she unflinchingly reveals us and our world to ourselves. 'As a man, to read it is as unsettling as receiving one piece of bad news after another. It is confronting. Yet anyone who reads it, man or woman, is going to be left with a sense that a long-hidden truth has been revealed to them. The Natural Way of Things is a brave, brilliant book. I would defy anyone to read it and not come out a changed person.' Malcolm Knox, author of The Wonder Lover 'This is a stunning exploration of ambiguities - of power, of morality, of judgment. With a fearless clarity, Wood's elegantly spare and brutal prose dissects humanity, hatreds, our ambivalent capacities for friendship and betrayal, and the powerful appearance - always - of moments of grace and great beauty. The book's ending undid me through the shape of the world it reveals as much as its revisions of escape and survival. It will not leave you easily; it took my breath away.' Ashley Hay, author of The Railwayman's Wife

From the Booker Prize-shortlisted author of Stone Yard Devotional

An inspiring work about creativity and resilience from the multi-award-winning author of Stone Yard Devotional.

Creativity, Resilience and the Inner Life, from the Booker Prize-Shortlisted Author of Stone Yard Devotional

A brilliant resource for established and beginner writers, and for passionate readers everywhere - advice from acclaimed and much-loved authors compiled from their conversations with the brilliant and insightful Charlotte Wood.

Edited by the Booker Prize-Shortlisted Author of Stone Yard Devotional

(BOOK CLUB - non renewable, non reservable).

Stone Yard devotional

A deeply moving novel about forgiveness, grief, and what it means to be 'good', from the award-winning author of The Natural Way of Things and The Weekend. SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE SHORTLISTED FOR THE PRIME MINISTER'S LITERARY AWARD SHORTLISTED FOR THE VICTORIAN PREMIER'S LITERARY AWARD SHORTLISTED FOR THE AGE BOOK OF THE YEAR SHORTLISTED FOR THE ABIA AWARD FOR LITERARY FICTION SHORTLISTED FOR THE BARBARA JEFFERIS AWARD LONGLISTED FOR THE MILES FRANKLIN LITERARY AWARD BOOK OF THE YEAR, SYDNEY MORNING HERALD BOOK OF THE YEAR, ABC A woman abandons her city life and marriage to return to the place of her childhood, holing up in a small religious community hidden away on the stark plains of the Monaro. She does not believe in God, doesn't know what prayer is, and finds herself living this strange, reclusive life almost by accident. As she gradually adjusts to the rhythms of monastic life, she finds herself turning again and again to thoughts of her mother, whose early death she can't forget. 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 left the community decades before to minister to deprived women in Thailand - then disappeared, presumed murdered. Finally, a troubling visitor to the monastery pulls the narrator further back into her past. With each of these disturbing arrivals, the woman faces some deep questions. Can a person be truly good? What is forgiveness? Is loss of hope a moral failure? And can the business of grief ever really be finished? A meditative and deeply moving novel from one of Australia's most acclaimed and best loved writers. 'Extraordinary ... a stunning work of fiction from a major writer who keeps getting better' THE AUSTRALIAN 'Remarkable ... I'm still trying to figure out how she pulled it off. The best thing she's done' TIM WINTON, author of The Shepherd's Hut 'I have rarely been so absorbed by a novel ... A powerful, generous book' GUARDIAN 'It extends and deepens Wood's already remarkable achievements as a novelist in powerful and often profound ways' THE SATURDAY PAPER 'A beautiful, mature work that does not flinch from life' SUNDAY TIMES 'A book about what it means to be good: simply and with great humility, it asks the big questions, leaving 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 Pleasures 'No words can quite convey how much I loved this book' KAREN JOY FOWLER, author of Booth 'Wood joins the ranks of writers such as Nora Ephron, Penelope Lively and Elizabeth Strout.' THE GUARDIAN UK

Shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2024

The award-winning author of Stone Yard Devotional and The Natural Way of Things, explores the solitary and shared pleasures of cooking and eating in an ode to good food, prepared and presented with minimum fuss and maximum love.

Thoughts on the Gift of Food, from the Booker Prize-Shortlisted Author of Stone Yard Devotional

The new Booker-longlisted novel by Charlotte Wood, the Stella Prize-winning author of The Natural Way of Things and The Weekend. A fearless exploration of forgiveness, grief and the complicated beauty of female friendship.[Bokinfo].

A NEW YORK TIMES TOP TEN BOOK OF THE YEAR A WASHINGTON POST TOP TEN BOOK OF THE YEAR Shortlisted for the 2024 Booker Prize, a novel about forgiveness, grief, and what it means to be good, from the award-winning author of The Weekend. “Stone Yard Devotional is as extraordinary as you’ve heard.” —Ron Charles, The Washington Post “An exquisite, wrenching novel of leaving your life behind.” —Lauren Christensen, New York Times Book Review "Meditative (but by no means uneventful)." —New York Times Burnt 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 signaling 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. Meditative, moving, and finely observed, Stone Yard Devotional is a seminal novel from a writer of rare power, exploring what it means to retreat from the world, the true nature of forgiveness, and the sustained effect of grief on the human soul.

Charlotte Wood

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