The Outlander

by Gil Adamson

In 1903 a mysterious, desperate young woman flees alone across the west, one quick step ahead of the law. She has just become a widow by her own hand.

Gil Adamson's extraordinary novel opens in heart-pounding mid-flight and propels the reader through a gripping road trip with a twist -- the steely outlaw in this story is a grief-struck nineteen-year-old woman. As the young widow encounters characters of all stripes -- unsavoury, wheedling, greedy, lascivious, self-reliant, and occasionally generous and trustworthy -- Adamson weds her brilliant literary style to the gripping, moving, picaresque tale of one woman's deliberate journey into the wild.

When Gil Adamson published her first two books, a volume of poetry (Primitive; 1991) and a collection of stories (Help Me, Jacques Cousteau; 1995), readers immediately recognized a unique and unusually compelling voice, one that partnered the random and the surreal with a finely tuned technical brilliance. The Outlander more than fulfills the promise of that voice.

(From Publisher).

Gil Adamson cites as her influences Michael Ondaatje, Raymond Carver, Richard Ford, and Mark Richard. Her acclaimed short fiction has been widely published in magazines and literary journals, and her collection of stories received rave reviews. The Outlander, ten years in the writing, is Gil Adamson's first novel. Adamson lives in Toronto, Canada.

In this fast paced novel, set in 1903, 19 year old Mary Boulton kills her husband and escapes to the Alberta Foothills and Rocky Mountains always just ahead of her revenge seeking brothers-in-law. Amid scenes of extreme hardship and significant encounters with a cast of eccentric characters she struggles for her life and her ultimate liberation. An extremely well crafted novel that speaks to the resilience of the female spirit.

The Outlander is the story of Mary Boulton's desperate life on the run through the wilderness of the Canadian west told with the heart-stopping suspense, remarkable historical detail and graceful poetic prose.