Ridgerunner - by Gil Adamson

About the Book

"Published in Canada in 2020 and the USA in 2021 by House of Anansi Press Inc."--title-page verso.

Book Synopsis

Writers' Trust Fiction Prize Winner

Scotiabank Giller Prize Finalist

Part literary Western and part historical mystery, Writers' Trust Fiction Prize winner Ridgerunner is now available as a paperback.

November 1917. William Moreland is in mid-flight. After nearly twenty years, the notorious thief, known as the Ridgerunner, has returned. Moving through the Rocky Mountains and across the border to Montana, the solitary drifter, impoverished in means and aged beyond his years, is also a widower and a father. And he is determined to steal enough money to secure his son's future.

Twelve-year-old Jack Boulton has been left in the care of Sister Beatrice, a formidable nun who keeps him in cloistered seclusion in her grand old house. Though he knows his father is coming for him, the boy longs to return to his family's cabin, deep in the woods. When Jack finally breaks free, he takes with him something the nun is determined to get back -- at any cost.

Set against the backdrop of a distant war raging in Europe and a rapidly changing landscape in the West, Gil Adamson's follow-up to her award-winning debut, The Outlander, is a vivid historical novel that draws from the epic tradition and a literary Western brimming with a cast of unforgettable characters touched with humour and loss, and steeped in the wild of the natural world.

Review Quotes

Adamson writes with a sly wit and a deep insight into her characters and the natural world but, more significantly, into how the characters and the natural world interact, shaping and being shaped by one another . . . Everything packs a significant punch and draws the reader into the novel's world with a startling immediacy.-- "Quill & Quire"

Adamson's Ridgerunner is the kind of book that forges the possible from the impossible, despite age and borders. It's a hearty, brave novel that challenges us to live life on our own terms.-- "Chicago Review of Books"

Engrossing ... Adamson immerses readers in life as it was a century ago with attention to details about horses, wolves, bears, the weather, and all of nature, including the light and dark of human nature. Her sly plotting never quits, luring the reader into shocking surprises.-- "Booklist, STARRED REVIEW"

I have just finished reading Ridgerunner by Gil Adamson, a novel that left me deeply satisfied and savouring the experience of reading a really good book ... A great story and a wonderfully written novel.-- "Metro North Bay-Nippissing"

Part literary Western, part historical mystery, it's a vivid story that grabs you by the eyeballs on page one.-- "Globe and Mail"

Rich and exciting ... delightful, sinewy language that takes time with the details of the moment, of humour and whimsy ... Adamson's writing soars.-- "Hamilton Review of Books"

Striking ... Once again, Adamson's powers as a poet weave her characters deeply into the natural world.-- "Georgia Straight"