Gardening Sale!
 
 

Special Offers see all

Enter to WIN!

Weekly drawing for $100 credit. Subscribe to our Specials newsletter for a chance to win.
Privacy Policy

More at Powell's

Recently Viewed clear list

Guests | May 6, 2013

Benjamin Percy: IMG The Roof People

1 comment By Benjamin Percy

My sister slept with the light on until she was 27. She rightfully blames me. I would leap out of closets with my hands made into claws. I would... Continue »
  1. $18.19 Sale Hardcover add to wish list

    Red Moon

    Benjamin Percy 9781455501663
spacer
Ships free on qualified orders.
$5.50
Used Hardcover
Ships in 1 to 3 days
Add to Wishlist
Qty Store Section
1 Burnside Literature- A to Z

The Outlander

by

The Outlander Cover

 

Staff Pick

The Outlander by Gil Adamson is a wondrous vacation for your mind. With its eccentric characters and luminous prose, this novel is a romping escapade of big fun.
Recommended by Adrienne, Powells.com

The Outlander is a rare novel. Its beautifully breathless language seduces your attention to the smallest detail. From the first sentence you find yourself running, running with a woman you've just met, for reasons unclear, from pursuers unknown. Yet you don't stop running, nor does she. She runs, in fear and confusion, across fields and up mountainsides, in her mind and through her dubious memory. The frenetic pace carries you through the story and uncovers a world of survival and isolation, brutality, freedom, and love, and introduces you to an extraordinary cast of reprobates, rugged outsiders, and a pair of unusually large, red-headed twins. So incredible is Adamson's description of this journey, I believe The Outlander will be my number one pick for years to come.
Recommended by Ann E., Powells.com

Review-A-Day

"Welcome to The Outlander, an absorbing adventure from a Canadian poet and short story writer who knows how to keep us enthralled. Of course, the Girl Being Chased is one of the most enduring figures of chivalric and chauvinistic literature, a staple of television dramas and horror films (the dark street, those panicked backward glances, that plaintive cry: 'Oh, why did I wear these heels?!'). But Gil is short for Gillian, and her strange and complicated heroine has nothing in common with Hollywood's worn-out damsels in distress." Ron Charles, Washington Post Book World (read the entire Washington Post Book World review)

Synopses & Reviews

From Powells.com:

  1. Featured in Indiespensable Volume 3!
  2. Powell's subscription club offers signed first editions, exclusive content, and unique handpicked gifts.
  3. Read about this and other past installments!

Publisher Comments:

In 1903 a mysterious young woman flees alone across the West, one heart-pounding step ahead of the law. At nineteen, Mary Boulton has just become a widow — and her husband's killer. As bloodhounds track her frantic race toward the mountains, she is tormented by mad visions and by the knowledge that her two ruthless brothers-in-law are in pursuit, determined to avenge their younger brother's death. Responding to little more than the primitive fight for life, the widow retreats ever deeper into the wilderness—and into the wilds of her own mind—encountering an unforgettable cast of eccentrics along the way.

With the stunning prose and captivating mood of great works like Charles Frazier's Cold Mountain or early Cormac McCarthy, Gil Adamson's intoxicating debut novel weds a brilliant literary style to the gripping tale of one woman's desperate escape.

Review:

"A remarkable first novel, full of verve, beautifully written, and with all the panache of a great adventure." Ann Patchett

Review:

"Adamson's debut work is simply enough, a superb novel....The frayed material of the North American west is rendered in an astoundingly fresh light....[A] condition only occasioned by first rate fiction" Jim Harrison

Review:

"Enriched by vivid language that reflects Adamson's background as a poet, Outlander is a riveting tale of a woman's thirst for freedom. (Grade: A-)" Entertainment Weekly

Review:

"A lovingly crafted novel." Kirkus Reviews

Review:

"The slow unfolding of story and character coupled with lyrical descriptions of the terrain, an occasional touch of bizarre humor, and a multitude of well-chosen historical details will appeal to readers of literary writing as well as historical-fiction fans." Booklist

Review:

"Authentic historical details, a strong female character running for her life, and a murder-driven plot will appeal to fiction readers....Highly recommended." Library Journal

Review:

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

Review:

"The Outlander deserves to be read twice, first for the plot and the complex characters, which make this a page-turner of the highest order, and then a second time, slowly, to savor the marvel of Gil Adamson's writing. This novel is a true wonder." Ann Patchett
back to top

About the Author

Gil Adamson's acclaimed short fiction and poetry have been widely published in magazines and literary journals. Her two poetry books (Primitive, 1991; and Ashland, 2003) and her collection of stories, Help Me, Jacques Cousteau (1995), received rave reviews. The Outlander is Adamson's first novel.
back to top

What Our Readers Are Saying

Add a comment for a chance to win!
Average customer rating based on 2 comments:
mreader, July 17, 2008 (view all comments by mreader)
This is a terrific read with regards to beauty of language and a compelling story. Adamson was first published as a poet and it shows. Fortunately, her word choices and descriptive passages do not detract from the forward movement of the story. It's wonderful that she's drawing on the west as a frame for her work in this piece, the beautiful country around Pincher Creek, Alberta deserves a fine writer's sensibility.
Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No
(26 of 52 readers found this comment helpful)
report this comment
Mentalfloss1, July 3, 2008 (view all comments by Mentalfloss1)

Remarkable as a first novel. If Adamson writes something better it'll receive 5 stars from me.

The writing is atmospheric and beautiful and the story is compelling. Set in the vastness of central Canada at the turn of the 1900's the geography takes a central role in this tale of the adventure of young Mary Boulton evading two men who are tracking her across this wilderness.

The situations are brutal, tender, harsh and serene by turns. It's the sort of book that causes me to want to read it quickly to learn what happens next while the writing has me savoring the phrases and descriptions, envisioning what Mary Boulton saw and felt on her odyssey.
Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No
(37 of 62 readers found this comment helpful)
report this comment
View all 2 comments
back to top

Product Details

ISBN:
9780061491252
Author:
Adamson, Gil
Publisher:
Ecco Press
Author:
by Gil Adamson
Author:
by Gil Adamson
Subject:
Frontier and pioneer life
Subject:
History
Subject:
General
Subject:
General Fiction
Subject:
Historical - General
Subject:
Literary
Subject:
Widows
Subject:
Adventure fiction
Subject:
Literature-A to Z
Copyright:
2008
Edition Description:
Hardcover
Publication Date:
20080431
Binding:
HARDCOVER
Grade Level:
General/trade
Language:
English
Pages:
400
Dimensions:
9 x 6 x 1.25 in 19.28 oz
back to top

Other books you might like

  1. The Story of Edgar Sawtelle
    Used Trade Paper $2.95
  2. Skeletons at the Feast
    Used Mass Market $5.95
  3. The Other: A Novel Used Hardcover $3.50
  4. Mudbound
    Used Trade Paper $6.95
  5. How the Dead Dream
    Used Trade Paper $7.95
  6. The Third Angel: A Novel
    Used Hardcover $7.95
back to top

Related Subjects

Fiction and Poetry » Literature » A to Z

The Outlander Used Hardcover
0 stars - 0 reviews
$5.50 In Stock
Product details 400 pages Ecco - English 9780061491252 Reviews:
"Staff Pick" by ,

The Outlander by Gil Adamson is a wondrous vacation for your mind. With its eccentric characters and luminous prose, this novel is a romping escapade of big fun.

by Adrienne
"Staff Pick" by ,

The Outlander is a rare novel. Its beautifully breathless language seduces your attention to the smallest detail. From the first sentence you find yourself running, running with a woman you've just met, for reasons unclear, from pursuers unknown. Yet you don't stop running, nor does she. She runs, in fear and confusion, across fields and up mountainsides, in her mind and through her dubious memory. The frenetic pace carries you through the story and uncovers a world of survival and isolation, brutality, freedom, and love, and introduces you to an extraordinary cast of reprobates, rugged outsiders, and a pair of unusually large, red-headed twins. So incredible is Adamson's description of this journey, I believe The Outlander will be my number one pick for years to come.

by Ann E.
"Review A Day" by , "Welcome to The Outlander, an absorbing adventure from a Canadian poet and short story writer who knows how to keep us enthralled. Of course, the Girl Being Chased is one of the most enduring figures of chivalric and chauvinistic literature, a staple of television dramas and horror films (the dark street, those panicked backward glances, that plaintive cry: 'Oh, why did I wear these heels?!'). But Gil is short for Gillian, and her strange and complicated heroine has nothing in common with Hollywood's worn-out damsels in distress." (read the entire Washington Post Book World review)
"Review" by , "A remarkable first novel, full of verve, beautifully written, and with all the panache of a great adventure."
"Review" by , "Adamson's debut work is simply enough, a superb novel....The frayed material of the North American west is rendered in an astoundingly fresh light....[A] condition only occasioned by first rate fiction"
"Review" by , "Enriched by vivid language that reflects Adamson's background as a poet, Outlander is a riveting tale of a woman's thirst for freedom. (Grade: A-)"
"Review" by , "A lovingly crafted novel."
"Review" by , "The slow unfolding of story and character coupled with lyrical descriptions of the terrain, an occasional touch of bizarre humor, and a multitude of well-chosen historical details will appeal to readers of literary writing as well as historical-fiction fans."
"Review" by , "Authentic historical details, a strong female character running for her life, and a murder-driven plot will appeal to fiction readers....Highly recommended."
"Review" by , "A remarkable first novel, full of verve, beautifully written, and with all the panache of a great adventure."
"Review" by , "The Outlander deserves to be read twice, first for the plot and the complex characters, which make this a page-turner of the highest order, and then a second time, slowly, to savor the marvel of Gil Adamson's writing. This novel is a true wonder."
spacer
spacer
  • back to top
Follow us on...




Powell's City of Books is an independent bookstore in Portland, Oregon, that fills a whole city block with more than a million new, used, and out of print books. Shop those shelves — plus literally millions more books, DVDs, and eBooks — here at Powells.com.