Hey, it's NPR's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbong. March is Women's History Month,

and this Saturday is International Women's Day. So to honor that this week, we're having

all women writers on the pod. Today, we're talking to Charlotte Wood, whose new novel,

Stoneyard Devotional, is about a narrator who chooses to leave everything and join a closed-off

religious community. It's a book about choices. And in this interview with MPR's Ari Shapiro,

Wood talks about not judging her character's choices, which she says is technically hard to do.

And I think you've seen it in fiction, right? You can often tell when a writer feels a certain way about a character.

The approach would take is to have her characters act in that ethically gray area where it's

hard to cast judgment in the first place.

More up ahead.

In the U.S., national security news can feel far away from daily life.

Distant wars, murky conflicts, diplomacy behind closed doors.

On our new show, Sources and Methods.

NPR reporters on the ground bring you stories of real people,

helping you understand why distant events matter here at home.

Listen to sources and methods on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.

If you've ever felt the urge to tune out current events, to turn your back on the world and all of its troubles,

then you have something in common with the unnamed narrator of the new novel, Stone Yard Devotional. She gives

into that urge, abandons her modern life in Sydney, and retreats to a convent. Soon, disruptions

arrive. Stone Yard Devotional was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, and I asked the author

Charlotte Wood to begin by reading a passage where the narrator

contemplates the choice she made.

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