Outlawed

Anna North

From Shelf: Pages of Pride

'A feminist Western about a world in which women's worth and right to live are determined by the vagaries of fertility. Set in an alternate past, one all too similar to our today, OUTLAWED is a masterpiece' R.O. Kwon

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERA REESE WITHERSPOON BOOK CLUB PICKMAJOR TV ADAPTATION IN DEVELOPMENT BY AMY ADAMS'Calling it The Handmaid's Tale crossed with Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid goes some way to describe this novel's memorable world, but it is also wholly its own' KIRKUS '2021 is already a year that could use a little joy. Here to provide some is Outlawed . . . It's an absolute romp and contains basically everything I want in a book: witchy nuns, heists, a marriage of convenience, and a midwife trying to build a bomb out of horse dung' Vox 'Outlawed sets a high bar for the 12 months of publishing still to come . . . It upends the tropes of the traditionally macho and heteronormative genre while also being a rip-snortin' good read, too' THE WEEK (Most Anticipated Books of the Year) 'North is a riveting storyteller . . . Reader, you are in for a real treat' JENNY ZHANG'Fans of Margaret Atwood and Cormac McCarthy finally get the Western they deserve' ALEXIS COE 'A thrilling tale eerily familiar but utterly transformed ... In North's galloping prose, it's a fantastically cinematic adventure that turns the sexual politics of the Old West inside out' WASHINGTON POST 'A western unlike any other, Outlawed features queer cowgirls, gender nonconforming robbers and a band of feminists that fight against the grain for autonomy, agency and the power to define their own worth' MS. 'A grand, unforgettable tale' ESME WEIJUN WANG In the year of our Lord 1894, I became an outlaw.On the day of her wedding-dance, Ada feels lucky. She loves her broad-shouldered, bashful husband and her job as an apprentice midwife.But her luck will not last. It is every woman's duty to have a child, to replace those that were lost in the Great Flu. And after a year of marriage and no pregnancy, in a town where barren women are hanged as witches, Ada's survival depends on leaving behind everything she knows.She joins up with the notorious Hole in the Wall Gang. Its leader, a charismatic preacher-turned-robber, known to all as The Kid, wants to create a safe haven for women outcast from society. But to make this dream a reality, the Gang hatches a treacherous plan. And Ada must decide whether she's willing to risk her life for the possibility of a new kind of future for them all.