A LUCKY 13 YEARS elapsed between Gil Adamson’s first novel, The Outlander, and its follow-up, Ridgerunner (House of Anansi Press).When the literary Western, about a thief on the run who attempts one last con to set his 12-year-old son up for life, was published at the height of CO-VID-19 lockdowns in May, Adamson’s heart sank. “It was such a weird experience to come out with this book, da-da-da-da!,” she says, singing fanfare, “after years of being sort of silent, and worry that it was going to just drop into a big black COVID hole.”
Instead, the novel became a bestseller, a finalist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize, and the winner of the Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize. Adamson spoke to Q&Q about receiving the awards-season glow.