Charlotte Wood Stone Yard Devotional

女主人公逃离城市婚姻，隐居澳大利亚Monaro平原的宗教社区，表面是物理空间的迁徙，实则是精神层面的自我放逐。她自称无神论者，却在修道院的静默中被迫直面信仰的缺席‌。

小说通过主角对亡母的愧疚、对修女命运的困惑，探讨“宽恕是否需以忏悔为前提”“绝望是否一种道德堕落”等存在主义命题，展现Wood对人性复杂性的深刻洞察‌。

《Stone Yard Devotional》远非传统意义上的宗教小说。Charlotte Wood以手术刀般的精准，剖开现代人用忙碌掩饰的信仰伤口——当上帝已死，道德律令崩塌，我们何以在鼠尸与遗骨间重建生存意义？这部小说像一记闷拳，让所有习惯用“正能量”麻痹自我的读者窒息，继而醒悟。

书名：Stone Yard Devotional

作者：Charlotte Wood

简介：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.

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 signaling 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.