''The Natural Way of Things'' (2015) is a novel by Australian writer
Charlotte Wood
Charlotte Wood (born 1965) is an Australian novelist. ''The Australian'' newspaper described Wood as "one of our ustralia'smost original and provocative writers".
Biography
Wood was born in Cooma, New South Wales. She is the author of six ...
. It won the
Stella Prize
The Stella Prize is an Australian annual literary award established in 2013 for writing by Australian women in all genres, worth $50,000. It was originally proposed by Australian women writers and publishers in 2011, modelled on the UK's Baileys W ...
, for writing by Australian women, in 2016.
Plot summary
Ten young women are held prisoner somewhere in the Australian bush by two male guards and a woman who purports to be a nurse. The women come to discover that they are all connected in that they are all the victims of sexual scandals. They have been kidnapped and kept out of society's view in order for the scandal to die down. But they are also humiliated, and physically and emotionally punished.
Critical reception
Rosemary Sorenson in ''The Sydney Review of Books'', is in no doubt about the novel's worth: "Charlotte Wood’s fifth novel ''The Natural Way of Things'' is a virtuoso performance, plotted deftly through a minefield of potential traps, weighted with allegory yet swift and sure in its narrative advance. As an idea for a novel, it’s rich, and to achieve that idea the writer has been courageous. Her control of this story is masterful."
Kerryn Goldsworthy in ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' agrees: "This is an extraordinary novel: inspired, powerful, at once coherent and dreamlike. While it's rich in symbols and in implications, much of it is brutally realist in mode, with its flights of imagination anchored in rational explanations: the result of drugs or fever dreams...''The Natural Way of Things'' recalls all the reading you've ever done on the subjects of capture, isolation, incarceration, totalitarianism, misogyny, and the abuse of power. It's thought-provoking in all directions."
"The Natural Way of Things review: Charlotte Wood's profound and fine new novel" by Kerry Goldsworthy, ''The Sydney Morning Herald'', 10 October 2015
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Awards
* 2016 – winner Stella Prize
The Stella Prize is an Australian annual literary award established in 2013 for writing by Australian women in all genres, worth $50,000. It was originally proposed by Australian women writers and publishers in 2011, modelled on the UK's Baileys W ...
* 2016 – shortlisted Victorian Premier's Literary Awards
The Victorian Premier's Literary Awards were created by the Victorian Government with the aim of raising the profile of contemporary creative writing and Australia's publishing industry. As of 2013, it is reportedly Australia's richest literary p ...
— The Vance Palmer Prize for Fiction
* 2016 – winner Indie Awards — Fiction
* 2016 – longlisted Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIA) — Australian Literary Fiction Book of the Year
* 2016 – shortlisted Miles Franklin Literary Award
The Miles Franklin Literary Award is an annual literary prize awarded to "a novel which is of the highest literary merit and presents Australian life in any of its phases". The award was set up according to the will of Miles Franklin (1879–195 ...
* 2016 – longlisted Kibble Literary Awards — Nita Kibble Literary Award
The Kibble Literary Awards comprise two awards—the Nita B Kibble Literary Award, which recognises the work of an established Australian female writer, and the Dobbie Literary Award, which is for a first published work by a female writer. The Awar ...
See also
* 2015 in literature
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 2015.
Events
*January 21 – The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) launches a six-part television miniseries of Hilary Mantel's Booker Prize-winning novels ''Wo ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Natural Way of Things, The
2015 Australian novels
Allen & Unwin books