Can a person truly be good? What is forgiveness? Is losing hope a moral failure? And is the business of grief ever really finished?

These questions pervade Charlotte Wood’s latest novel, Stone Yard Devotional, which is set on the Monaro plains where the much-loved author of The Natural Way of Things and The Weekend grew up.

It follows a woman who abandons city life to return to the place of her childhood, holing up in a cloistered religious community where she confronts her past.

Hear Charlotte and host Beejay Silcox discuss her most personal novel to date.

This episode was recorded live in May at the 2024 Sydney Writers’ Festival.

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