the natural way of things by charlotte wood

The presence of kookaburras and kangaroos and a passing reference to 'the shearers' quarters' – individual cells the women call dog boxes, in which they have a little privacy if nothing else – are the only clues to the location and history of this place before it was repurposed as a detention facility by the addition of that state-of-the-art electric fence and the provision of food and medical supplies. On the first day, as they recover from the drugs, they find themselves clothed in a strange rough uniform, stripped of their own clothes their heads are shaved and they are led out through the bush to be shown the six-metre-high electric fence that runs around the perimeter of the vast, mysterious, run-down property on which they have been detained. Ten young women, all of them notorious for – and blamed for – media-inflated sexual scandals involving exploitation, abuse, and betrayal by powerful men, have been drugged, kidnapped, and bundled off to a remote facility in some unnamed location, where they are bullied and menaced by a couple of gormless guards. Change them around, mix them up, and transform them into one strong story, something original, new, and whole. You take bits and pieces of things from all over: stories, facts, images, dreams, people you've known, events you've witnessed, ideas you've had, conclusions to which you've come. But The Natural Way of Things is a superb object lesson in the difference between non-fiction and fiction, and in the way the creative process works. It was a hotpot of memoir, essay and recipe about the joy of cooking and of feeding people.

Charlotte Wood's previous book was called Love & Hunger.

The natural way of things by charlotte wood