Author: Diana Gabaldon
Publish Date: July 26, 2005
Pages: 850
Goodreads Synopsis:
The year is 1945. Claire Randall, a former combat nurse, is back from the war and reunited with her husband on a second honeymoon--when she walks through a standing stone in one of the ancient stone circles that dot the British Isles. Suddenly she is a Sassenach--an "outlander"--in a Scotland torn by war and raiding Highland clans in the year of Our Lord...1743.
Hurled back in time by forces she cannot understand, Claire is catapulted into intrigues and dangers that may threaten her life...and shatter her heart. For here she meets James Fraser, a gallant young Scots warrior, and becomes a woman torn between fidelity and desire...and between two vastly different men in two irreconcilable lives.
This book was recommended to me by my cousin. She warned me of it's pitfalls, but still sung it's praises. Outlander does start off slow. Takes you a while to get into it, but it is a fantastic, gritty, historical, thoughtful tale.
The book is about a woman living in 1945, who gets whisked back to 1743 via a circle of stones in Scotland. She theorizes it is a fairy hill, but there are no faeries in this story. Other than the time slip, and the differences of a woman from the 40s living in the 1700s, this book is historical fiction. We find our how clans in the Highlands lived. There are politics, intrigue, romance, battle, and human interaction. The characters are well built, and motivations are realistic.
Our heroine experiences both inner emotional conflict, and must fight her way out of many situations. She was a nurse in 1945, having seen her share of gruesome scenes from working in a hospital ward during WWII. Her husband in 1945 was a historian, providing her with some knowledge of the place she ends up. This is all she has to prepare her for the adventure she steps into.
If you are looking for a fun, but intelligent read - I would recommend it.
