The Weekend

By: Charlotte Wood

Narrated by: Taylor Owynns

From the Winner of the 2016 Stella Prize for The Natural Way of Things.

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. Can they survive together without her? 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 for Christmas at Sylvie's old beach house - not for festivities but to clean the place out before it is sold. 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.

©2019 Charlotte Wood (P)2019 Allen & Unwin Pty Limited

Critic reviews

“A compelling and vivid look at the friendships we make as women. Honest, unsettling and, like all good literature, had me asking questions about life and myself.” (Heather Rose, author of The Museum of Modern Love, winner of the 2017 Stella Prize)

Potential not reached

I really welcomed the appearance of 4 different seeming characters in their final years. But then. So little. Perhaps because each person represented only a “one trick pony” the plot fell down a deeply repetitive hole.
If the old dog walked up and down once more I felt I would be moved to euthanize it myself and perhaps, well, all of them! And perhaps worst of all, the already irritating, paper thin characters didn’t hold to their given form so the final sections felt really unconvincing and melodramatic.
And the actor doing the reading. Clear diction but so much so much same, that it was often unclear when a different character was speaking/thinking/doing.