One man is a hermit who has been fleeing the Forest Service these past nine years, and has hardly spoken to a soul since. The frontier communities Mary stumbles into are fascinatingly odd places, with their hard-bitten miners, outcasts and freaks. This dual conflict - flight from what's following, fight with what's within - is what drives the novel. Typically for a Canadian novel, the wilderness is the enemy, but here, Mary's off-on psychosis creates a wilderness within to match the one without. As she huddles beneath the dripping trees, visions materialise before her eyes: the product of her own unstable mind. Mary is no outdoorswoman, and her attempts at foraging for food only leave her more hungry. Vengeful and relentless, they hunt her with rifles, forcing her higher into the mountains, where starvation, cold and predators lie in wait. Her pursuers are the twin brothers of her late husband. Mary is only 19 but already a widow - "widowed", we are solemnly told, "by her own hand". It is 1903, and a frightened woman is crashing through the bush in rural Canada, where the prairies bump up against the Rocky mountains. Striking, thoughtful, full of unexpected twists, The Outlander is that rare delight: a novel that is beautifully written yet as gripping as any airport page-turner. I f you never managed to track down a good read for your Christmas break, this may just make up for it.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
May 2023
Categories |