The Outlander, by Gil Adamson
The Outlander, a strikingly good first novel by the Canadian poet Gil Adamson, is a drama of extremity and isolation set in the Rocky Mountains of Canada in the early 1900s. Much of it reads like a pastiche Western with elements of supernatural grotesquerie out of Stephen King or even The X-Files. Turn-of-the-century Alberta is portrayed as a menacing backwater, where settlers are in danger of being scalped by Crow Indians and fur-trappers disembowelled. Into this pioneer territory comes Mary Boulton, a 19-year-old housewife who has just murdered her husband. In physical and emotional disarray, she is on the run from her brothers-in-law, who want her blood in return for the crime committed.
Mary has some dim hope of salvation in the mountains above Alberta, where she can go to ground.
Get Britain's best politics newsletters
Register to get The Spectator's insight and opinion straight to your inbox. You can then read two free articles each week.
Already a subscriber? Log in
Comments
Join the debate for just $5 for 3 months
Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for $5.
UNLOCK ACCESS Just $5 for 3 monthsAlready a subscriber? Log in