Charlotte Wood

Charlotte Wood's critically-acclaimed early novel, now published outside of Australia for the first time. Stephen is having the worst day of his life. On a stiflingly hot summer morning, he has decided it's time to break up with his girlfriend Fiona. He's 39, aimless and unfulfilled, but without a clue how to make his life better. All he has are his instincts - and they may be his downfall. Making his way through the pitiless city and the hours of a single day, Stephen must endure another shift of his dead-end job at the zoo, fend off the relentless demands of his family, and face up to Fiona's aggressive ex-husband. As an ordinary day unravels into an existential crisis, Stephen begins to understand - perhaps too late - that love is not a trap, and only he can free himself. Hilarious, tender and heartbreaking, Animal People is a portrait of urban life, a meditation on the conflicted nature of human-animal relationships, and a masterpiece of storytelling.

'I find it impossible to read [Wood's recipes] without feeling a burst of fresh energy for the kitchen. . . essential nourishment for the reader every bit as much as for the cook' Nigella Lawson In this age of gastro-porn and Instagram lifestyle gurus, the pressure to be as expert as the chefs and influencers 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. Twenty-five personal essays and a wealth of recipes range from the deeply practical (how to chop an onion and the joys of chicken stock) to the contemplative, and the consoling to the celebratory. ? To Charlotte Wood, cooking is 'creativity in its purest form', nourishing the soul - and the mind - as well as the body. Love & Hunger will make you long to get into the kitchen to try the surprising tips and delicious recipes, and leave you freshly inspired to cook with joy for the people you love. Love & 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.

When the women awaken from a drugged sleep to find themselves imprisoned in a broken-down property in the middle of a desert, they have no idea where they are or how they came to be there. Doing hard labor under a sweltering sun, guarded by two inept yet vicious jailers, 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. Originally published in 2016 and ever more relevant upon its 10th anniversary, 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.

? SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2024 ? The new novel by the bestselling author of The WeekendA Book of the Year for the Guardian, Sydney Morning Herald and ABC'The fact that Stone Yard Devotional not only stays aloft but soars would seem to deny the laws of literary physics' Ron Charles, Washington Post'A beautiful, mature work that does not flinch from life' Sunday Times'Exquisite, wrenching' New York Times'I have rarely been so absorbed by a novel' Guardian'exquisite... a heartening and consoling force' Sigrid Nunez, The New Yorker'It leaves the reader feeling kinder, more brave, enlarged' Anne EnrightBurnt 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. But disquiet soon interrupts this secluded life. First, the skeletal remains of a sister who disappeared decades before are returned to the monastery, resurfacing years of grief and pain. And then, an unexpected and troubling visitor plunges the narrator further into her past...? Shortlisted for the Victorian Premier's Literary Award? Shortlisted for The Age Book of the Year? Shortlisted for the ABIA Award for Literary Fiction? Longlisted for the Miles Franklin Award

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.

? SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2024 ? The new novel by the bestselling author of The WeekendA Book of the Year for the Guardian, Sydney Morning Herald and ABC'The fact that Stone Yard Devotional not only stays aloft but soars would seem to deny the laws of literary physics' Ron Charles, Washington Post'A beautiful, mature work that does not flinch from life' Sunday Times'Exquisite, wrenching' New York Times'I have rarely been so absorbed by a novel' Guardian'It leaves the reader feeling kinder, more brave, enlarged' Anne EnrightBurnt 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. But disquiet soon interrupts this secluded life. First, the skeletal remains of a sister who disappeared decades before are returned to the monastery, resurfacing years of grief and pain. And then, an unexpected and troubling visitor plunges the narrator further into her past...? Shortlisted for the Victorian Premier's Literary Award? Shortlisted for The Age Book of the Year? Shortlisted for the ABIA Award for Literary Fiction? Longlisted for the Miles Franklin Award

From the author of the multi–award winning bestseller Between a Wolf and a Dog, a powerful collection of previously unpublished stories. A sister is haunted by the consequences of a simple mistake. A daughter searches for certainty as her mother’s memory degrades. An encounter at a house party changes the course of a life. In Far From Home, beloved Australian author Georgia Blain returns to her resonant themes of relationships and family, illness and health, love and death. Composed in Blain’s final years, these nine stories grapple with large questions on a human scale, brimming with her trademark acuity, nuance, and warmth.

Hämta bokcirkelfrågor till En siste helg här >> Tre kvinnor i 70-årsåldern samlas under en livsförändrande helg i sin avlidna väninnas strandhus. Deras långa vänskap har alltid präglats av respekt, värme och lojalitet. Men efter väninnans död tycks allt förändrat. När de återförenas i Sylvies strandhus – så som de gjort vid jultid varje år – är det inte för att fira utan för att städa ut allt innan huset ska säljas. Gräl, missförstånd, en gammal, döv hund, ovälkomna gäster och alltför mycket vin leder till en urladdning som river upp gamla sår och hotar att förstöra deras vänskap för all framtid. Med humor, värme och gnistrande intelligens utforskar Charlotte Wood hur det är att bli gammal och vad som händer när vi måste tvingas möta lögnerna vi tvingat oss själva att tro på.

The #1 International Bestseller from the Booker Prize-shortlisted author of Stone Yard Devotional "The Big Chill with a dash of Big Little Lies . . . Knife-sharp and deeply alive." --The Guardian (London) "An insightful, poignant, and fiercely honest novel about female friendship and female aging." --Sigrid Nunez, National Book Award-winning author of The Friend "Friendship, ambition, love, sexual politics and death: it's all here in one sharp, funny, heartbreaking, and gorgeously written package. I loved it." --Paula Hawkins, author of The Girl on the Train Three women in their seventies reunite for one last, life-changing weekend in the beach house of their late friend. Four older women have a lifelong friendship of the best kind: loving, practical, frank, and steadfast. But when Sylvie dies, the ground shifts dangerously for the remaining three. They are Jude, a once-famous restaurateur; Wendy, an acclaimed public intellectual; and Adele, a renowned actress now mostly out of work. Struggling to recall exactly why they've remained close all these years, the grieving women gather at Sylvie's old beach house--not for festivities this time, but to clean it out before it is sold. Can they survive together without her? Without Sylvie to maintain the group's delicate equilibrium, frustrations build and painful memories press in. Fraying tempers, an elderly dog, unwelcome guests, and too much wine collide in a storm that brings long-buried hurts to the surface--and threatens to sweep away their friendship for good. The Weekend explores growing old and growing up, and what happens when we're forced to uncover the lies we tell ourselves. Sharply observed and excruciatingly funny, this is a jewel of a book: a celebration of tenderness and friendship from an award-winning writer.

'So great I am struggling to find the words to do it justice' Marian KeyesA Book of the Year for The Times, Observer, Independent and Good Housekeeping'A rare pleasure' Sunday Times'Riveting' Elizabeth Day'A perfect, funny, insightful, novel about women, friendship, and ageing' Nina Stibbe'A lovely, lively, intelligent, funny book' Tessa Hadley'Glorious . . . Charlotte Wood joins the ranks of writers such as Nora Ephron, Penelope Lively and Elizabeth Strout' GuardianSylvie, Jude, Wendy and Adele have been friends for decades, but when Sylvie dies, the ground shifts dangerously for the remaining three. These women couldn't be more different: Jude, a once-famous restaurateur with a long-standing affair with a married man; Wendy, an acclaimed feminist intellectual; Adele, a former star of the stage, now practically homeless. Struggling to recall exactly why they've remained close all these years, the grieving women gather for one last weekend at Sylvie's old beach house. But fraying tempers, an elderly dog, unwelcome guests and too much wine collide in a storm that threatens to sweep away their friendship for good.

#1 International Bestseller Shortlisted for the 2020 Australian Prime Minister's Literary Award * Shortlisted for the Stella Prize 2020 * Longlisted for the 2020 Miles Franklin Award "The Big Chill with a dash of Big Little Lies . . . Knife-sharp and deeply alive." --The Guardian (London) "An insightful, poignant, and fiercely honest novel about female friendship and female aging." --Sigrid Nunez, National Book Award-winning author of The Friend "Friendship, ambition, love, sexual politics and death: it's all here in one sharp, funny, heartbreaking, and gorgeously written package. I loved it." --Paula Hawkins, author of The Girl on the Train Three women in their seventies reunite for one last, life-changing weekend in the beach house of their late friend. Four older women have a lifelong friendship of the best kind: loving, practical, frank, and steadfast. But when Sylvie dies, the ground shifts dangerously for the remaining three. They are Jude, a once-famous restaurateur; Wendy, an acclaimed public intellectual; and Adele, a renowned actress now mostly out of work. Struggling to recall exactly why they've remained close all these years, the grieving women gather at Sylvie's old beach house--not for festivities this time, but to clean it out before it is sold. Can they survive together without her? Without Sylvie to maintain the group's delicate equilibrium, frustrations build and painful memories press in. Fraying tempers, an elderly dog, unwelcome guests, and too much wine collide in a storm that brings long-buried hurts to the surface--and threatens to sweep away their friendship for good. The Weekend explores growing old and growing up, and what happens when we're forced to uncover the lies we tell ourselves. Sharply observed and excruciatingly funny, this is a jewel of a book: a celebration of tenderness and friendship from an award-winning writer.

From the author of the Booker Prize-shortlisted novel Stone Yard Devotional'Savage'PAULA HAWKINS'Unforgettable'LIANE MORIARTY'A masterpiece'GUARDIAN'The Handmaid's Tale for our age' ECONOMISTTwo 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 girls, their heads shaved, guarded by two inept yet vicious jailers. 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 as the hours turn into days and the days into weeks and months, it becomes clear only the girls can rescue themselves.? ? ? The sensational, prize-winning novel ? ? ? ? Winner, 2016 Stella Prize? Winner, 2016 Indie Book of the Year Award? Winner, Fiction Book of the Year, 2016 Indie Book Award? Winner, 2016 Prime Minister's Literary Award for Fiction? Winner, Reader's Choice, 2016 ABIA Literary Fiction Book of the Year? Shortlisted, 2016 Miles Franklin Literary Award? Shortlisted, 2016 ABA Nielsen BookData Booksellers Choice Award? Longlisted, 2017 International Dublin Literary Award

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.

"A Handmaid's Tale for the 21st century" (Prism Magazine), Wood's dystopian tale about a group of young women held prisoner in the Australian desert is a prescient feminist fable for our times. As the Guardian writes, "contemporary feminism may have found its masterpiece of horror." Drugged, dressed in old-fashioned rags, and fiending for a cigarette, Yolanda wakes up in a barren room. Verla, a young woman who seems vaguely familiar, sits nearby. Down a hallway echoing loudly with the voices of mysterious men, in a stark compound deep in the Australian outback, other captive women are just coming to. Starved, sedated, the girls can't be sure of anything--except the painful episodes in their pasts that link them. Drawing strength from the animal instincts they're forced to rely on, the women go from hunted to hunters, along the way becoming unforgettable and boldly original literary heroines that readers will both relate to and root for. The Natural Way of Things is a lucid and illusory fable and a brilliantly plotted novel of ideas that reminds us of mankind's own vast contradictions--the capacity for savagery, selfishness, resilience, and redemption all contained by a single, vulnerable body. Winner2016 Stella Prize2016 Prime Minister's Literary Award in Fiction An Australian Indie Best Fiction Book & Overall Book of the Year Winner Finalist2017 International Dublin Literary Award2016 Voss Literary Prize2016 Victorian Premier's Award2016 The Miles Franklin Award