Outlander

by Diana Gabaldon Book 1 in the Outlander series.

First published 1991

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4.5(101,301)

In 1946, former combat nurse Claire Randall visits the Scottish Highlands with her husband and passes through a circle of standing stones into 1743. Stranded in a society of clan rivalries, British military pressure and Jacobite conspiracy, she is forced into marriage with the young Highlander Jamie Fraser for protection. Claire must use her medical knowledge to survive while deciding whether to seek her own century or remain with the man she has come to love.

Claire’s twentieth-century knowledge gives her medical advantages but also creates danger in a society where unusual skill can attract suspicion. Her marriage to Jamie begins as protection within clan politics and gradually becomes the central emotional conflict of the novel. The approach of the Jacobite rising gives their relationship a historical deadline, because Claire knows what Culloden will mean even when those around her do not.