Outlawed

By: Anna North

Narrated by: Cynthia Farrell

Bog Queen, the latest novel from Anna North, is available now.

Bloomsbury presents Outlawed by Anna North, read by Cynthia Farrell.

A REESE’S BOOK CLUB PICK * INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * BELLETRIST BOOK CLUB PICK * INDIE NEXT SELECTION * LIBRARY READS SELECTION * AMAZON EDITORS' CHOICE * WASHINGTON POST BEST OF THE YEAR

The "terrifying, wise, tender, and thrilling" (R.O. Kwon) adventure story of a fugitive girl, a mysterious gang of robbers, and their dangerous mission to transform the Wild West.

In the year of our Lord 1894, I became an outlaw.

The day of her wedding, 17 year old Ada’s life looks good; she loves her husband, and she loves working as an apprentice to her mother, a respected midwife. But after a year of marriage and no pregnancy, in a town where barren women are routinely hanged as witches, her survival depends on leaving behind everything she knows.

She joins up with the notorious Hole in the Wall Gang, a band of outlaws led by a preacher-turned-robber known to all as the Kid. Charismatic, grandiose, and mercurial, the Kid is determined to create a safe haven for outcast women. But to make this dream a reality, the Gang hatches a treacherous plan that may get them all killed. And Ada must decide whether she’s willing to risk her life for the possibility of a new kind of future for them all.

Featuring an irresistibly no-nonsense, courageous, and determined heroine, Outlawed dusts off the myth of the old West and reignites the glimmering promise of the frontier with an entirely new set of feminist stakes. Anna North has crafted a pulse-racing, page-turning saga about the search for hope in the wake of death, and for truth in a climate of small-mindedness and fear.©2023 Anna North

Critic reviews

Outlawed stirs up the western with a provocative blend of alt-history and feminist consciousness. The result is 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.

Anna North presents a far different perspective on the [Western] genre, one forged by women, Black and nonbinary people looking for the freedom, space and right to exist in a world that largely doesn’t want them . . . The vividness with which she writes this world is one that’s captivating and hard to put down.

Fans of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale are in for a stellar ride where gender roles, sexuality, agency, and self-discovery come together, making North’s story as experimental and novel as it is classic.

The heroes of the traditional Western were always sure about what made them the way they were; what made a man a man. For Ada and the other ‘outlaws’ of this spirited novel, the frontiers of gender and sexuality beckon to be explored.

Virtuosic.

From the author of the Lambda Literary Award-winning The Life and Death of Sophie Stark comes an alt-history feminist western . . . Think Foxfire by way of Maddie from True Grit, yet North's swashbuckling saga is wholly her own.

A thoroughly gripping, genre-subverting and -defining marvel of a novel.

2021 is already a year that could use a little joy. Here to provide some is the scrappy new feminist Western novel 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.

This book has me, and you should have this book.

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.

There is something both thrilling and intimidating about the first book of the year to receive rave reviews, and we didn't have to wait long for it in 2021. Published during the first week of the New Year, Anna North's 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.

North’s knockout latest chronicles the travails of a midwife’s daughter who joins a group of female and nonbinary outlaws near the end of the 19th century . . . The characters’ struggles for gender nonconformity and LGBTQ rights are tenderly and beautifully conveyed. This feminist western parable is impossible to put down.

Interesting idea

I listened to this book for a book club. I found the premise to be interesting, and I enjoyed the matter-of-fact portrayal of women and gender nonconforming people making a society for themselves. I found the characters hard to relate to, though, because of the violence they perpetrated and the oddness of some of the plot points, like the use of “baby Jesus” (why not just “Jesus?”) and the contrived-feeling idea of barren women being thrown out of towns en masse. It was enjoyable for what it was, and I appreciated the themes and setting, but I didn’t like it quite as much as I was expecting.

Bad Narration, Adequate Story

The idea was interesting enough, but the plot was just shy of being executed successfully. I never felt like the relationships between the characters were deep enough to elicit much care from the reader about what happened to anyone. The narration was also the worst I've ever heard from an audio book. The reader made very strange choices when it came to character voices. Many of the characters sported the same husky male voice, even many of the women. It took me several chapters to realize that the hole-in-the-wall gang were all FAAB for this reason. I may have enjoyed the book more if I had simply read it on my own, but I still don't think it was well-written enough to be a favorite.

Love it

Original and unique. Very entertaining. I didn't want it to end. The narration was good, too

Best book I’ve read/heard in years

The story, the characters, the reading, it all captivated me. I’m enthralled by this author and couldn’t stop listening to see what happened next. I would recommend this book to anyone with eyes or ears. You won’t regret it.

Great plot! Super interesting!

Loved the book in its entirety! The characters were unique as well as the plot.