Claire Randall is leading a double life. She has a husband in one century - and a lover in another...In 1945, Claire Randall is back from the war and reunited with her husband on a second honeymoon in Scotland. Innocently, she walks through a stone circle in the Highlands, and finds herself in a violent skirmish taking place in 1743. Suddenly, she is a Sassenach, an outlander, in a country torn by war and by clan feuds. A wartime nurse, Claire can deal with the bloody wounds that face her. But it is harder to deal with the knowledge that she is in Jacobite Scotland and the carnage of Culloden is looming. Marooned amid the passion and violence, the superstition, the shifting allegiances and the fervent loyalties, Claire is in danger from Jacobites and Redcoats - and from the shock of her own desire for James Fraser, a gallant and courageous young Scots warrior. Jamie shows her a passion so fierce and a love so absolute that Claire becomes a woman torn between fidelity and desire, and between two vastly different men in two irreconcilable lives.

INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE FIERY CROSS

Diana Gabaldon is the international bestselling author of five previous historical novels - Cross Stitch, Dragonfly in Amber, Voyager, Drums of Autumn and The Fiery Cross, and one work of non-fiction, Through the Stones. She lives with her family and a lot of other assorted wildlife in Scottsdale, Arizona.

2008-08-17 A bit of a hoot mon! (sorry)

I don't usually read romantic fiction and only tried 'Outlander' after a friend nagged me almost to death!
Fair enough, the reviewers who say it is a load of tosh are right. And yes, it was written by an American so the Scots are all noble/brave/loyal/strong/butch warrior types with ridiculous accents and the English are all sadists/rapists/homosexual (usually all three when I come to think of it) aristocratic types with ridiculous accents.
But if you just accept 'Outlander' as good old-fashioned escapism you might even enjoy it. I must admit I did!