The Outlander - Softcover

Adamson, Gil

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0747598770 ISBN 13: 9780747598770

Publisher: Bloomsbury Paperbacks, 2010

Synopsis

A brooding, compelling, fugitive-on-the-run story: shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize, winner of the International Association of Crime Writers Dashiell Hammett Prize, nominated for the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award.

'A remarkable first novel, full of verve, beautifully written, and with all the panache of a great adventure' Michael Ondaatje

'A superb adventure story' The Times

On a moonlit night in 1903, a mysterious young woman flees alone across the Canadian wilderness, one quick step ahead of her pursuers. Mary Boulton is nineteen years old, half mad, and widowed - by her own hand.


Tearing through the forest with dogs howling in the distance, she is desperate, her nerves burning, and she is certain of one thing only - that her every move is being traced. Two red-headed brothers, rifles across their backs, lurch close behind her: monstrous figures, identical in every way, with the predatory look of hyenas. She has murdered their brother, and their cold lust for vengeance is unswerving.



As the widow scrambles to stay ahead of them, the burden of her existence disintegrates into a battle in which the dangers of her own mind become more menacing than the dangers of the night. Along the way, the steely outlaw encounters a changing cast of misfits and eccentrics. Some, like the recluse known as 'The Ridgerunner', provide a brief respite from her solitude; others, like the Reverend Bonnycastle, offer support only to reveal that they too have their own demons raging inside. As she is plunged further away from civilisation, her path from retribution to redemption slowly unfurls.

A startling transformation of the classic western narrative, The Outlander is the haunting tale of one young woman's deliberate journey deep into the wild.

About this title

About the Author

Gil Adamson has written two acclaimed books of poetry, Primitive and Ashland, and her work has also been widely published in magazines and literary journals. Her novel, The Outlander, won the International Association of Crime Writers' Dashiell Hammett Prize and the Amazon.ca/Books in Canada First Novel Prize. It has also been shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize and nominated for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. She lives with writer Kevin Connolly in Toronto.

Edition details

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Paperbacks
• Publication date: 2010
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0747598770
• ISBN 13: 9780747598770
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 400