The Weekend (novel)
The Weekend is a 2019 novel by Australian author Charlotte Wood. The novel explores how a group of elderly women respond to the death of one of their close friends. The novel was written as part of Wood's fellowship as Writer in Residence at the Charles Perkins Centre, where she was engaged to write about the issue of aging.
Summary
The novel follows a group of four friends in their 70s — former restaurant owner Jude, writer Wendy, actress Adele, and Sylvie. The novel unfolds over the course of a single Christmas weekend shortly after Sylvie's death. Her three friends spend the weekend at her beach house cleaning out her belongings, where they process their grief and experience tensions in their friendship.Reception
The Weekend received positive reviews. In a review in the Sydney Review of Books, Sophia Barnes praised Wood's compelling characterisation of the three women. Kerryn Goldsworthy described Wood's technique as "masterly" in a review in the Sydney Morning Herald, praising both the quality of her writing and her exploration of the "precarious nature of womanhood". In a review in The Observer, Holly Williams wrote that the book was an enjoyable read, but that it focused more on the negatives of aging and friendship than on the joys. The novel was described in The Times as a "warm, wise story about friendship", and received positive reviews in both The Guardian and The Guardian Australia.Adaptation
The Weekend was adapted into a play by Australian playwright Sue Smith. The play debuted in 2023 at the Belvoir Street Theatre in Sydney, directed by Sarah Goodes and starring Belinda Giblin as Adele, Toni Scanlan as Jude and Melita Jurisic as Wendy. The theatre adaptation received positive reviews in The Guardian and Australian Book Review.Awards
| Year | Award | Category | Result | |
| 2020 | Indie Book Awards | Fiction Book of the Year | ||
| 2020 | Australian Book Industry Awards | Literary Fiction Book of the Year | Won | |
| 2020 | Stella Prize | |||
| 2020 | Miles Franklin Literary Award | |||
| 2020 | ALS Gold Medal | |||
| 2020 | Prime Minister's Literary Awards | Fiction | ||
| 2021 | New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards | Christina Stead Prize for Fiction |