Outlander
Diana Gabaldon, 1991
Romance Historical fictionHistoryFantasy
A 1945 nurse touches a standing stone and wakes in 1743 Scotland, where a clan, a redcoat and one young warrior demand she choose a side. A plain, witty first-person voice carries love, longing and a search for home through slow historical stretches and moments of freedom.
Feels like longing and serenity. About love, home and freedom.
Who it’s for
You may like it if you enjoy time-slip romance, Scottish clan politics and a practical narrator who mixes longing with dry wit. Be ready for a very long book with dense historical detail and explicit intimate scenes.
Why read it
It offers an escape into another century with a nurse whose practical voice makes the strange feel immediate, and a romance built on wit and choice.
A page from the book
The moment a question about the past turns into a very good joke.
I had one last try.“Does it bother you that I’m not a virgin?” He hesitated a moment before answering.“Well, no,” he said slowly, “so long as it doesna bother you that I am.” He grinned at my drop-jawed expression, and backed toward the door.“Reckon one of us should know what they’re doing,” he said. The door closed softly behind him; clearly the courtship was over. Diana Gabaldon.Gabaldon has a PhD in behavioural ecology and was a research professor; she wrote Outlander as a practice novel, at dawn, assuming no one would read it.
Books that feel like this
More by Diana Gabaldon
Dragonfly in Amber
Diana Gabaldon, 1992
A twentieth-century historian and an eighteenth-century Highlander are separated by two centuries and a cause already lost; the second Outlander novel is about what loyalty costs.
Voyager
Diana Gabaldon, 2002
A sweeping saga of love, history, and forbidden connections across centuries of Scottish conflict.
Where to get it
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Questions readers ask
- Is Outlander for me?
- You may like it if you enjoy time-slip romance, Scottish clan politics and a practical narrator who mixes longing with dry wit. Be ready for a very long book with dense historical detail and explicit intimate scenes.
- What is Outlander like?
- A plain, witty first-person voice carries love, longing and a search for home through slow historical stretches and moments of freedom. Feels like longing and serenity. About love, home and freedom.
- What should I read after Outlander?
- If you liked Outlander, try 11/22/63 (Stephen King), The Lucky One (Nicholas Sparks) and Flawless (Elsie Silver).
A taste of the feed
A case for love as something you carry, not something fated.
But I believe in love, you know; love is a uniquely portable magic. I don’t think it’s in the stars, but I do believe that blood calls to blood and mind calls to mind and heart to heart.
11/22/63 · Stephen King
When you stop hearing from someone, what story do you tell yourself?
Every now and then, I’d meet a guy and think that we were getting along great, and suddenly I’d stop hearing from him. Not only did he stop calling, but if I happened to bump into him sometime later he always acted like I had the plague. I didn’t understand it. I still don’t. And it bothered me. It hurt me. With time, it got harder and harder to keep blaming the guys, and I eventually came to the conclusion that there was something wrong with me. That maybe I was simply meant to live my life alone.
The Lucky One · Nicholas Sparks
How quickly a joke about taking a bullet stops being a joke.
Please don’t cry. I fucking hate it when you cry. It’s like a bullet to my chest.” “Taken many bullets, have you?” My voice is weak, and I hate that. “No,” he husks, “but I would. For you, I would.
Flawless · Elsie Silver
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