Outlawed

Outlawed by Anna North, published in 2021 by Bloomsbury Publishing, is Anna North’s second novel. It was a New York Times bestseller, selected for Reese Witherspoon’s book club, and chosen by the popular Belletrist book club. Anna North is a journalist as well as a novelist, and her background in reporting on women’s issues imbues her prose in Outlawed.

Outlawed is a hybrid of genres: It has elements of historical fiction, characterizations of American Western exploration literature, tropes of the bildungsroman, and promotes feminist literary themes. It rewrites the myths of a male-dominated Wild West, legends that are intrinsic to American culture yet often lacking female figures.

The novel is written in the first-person point of view of Ada, a teenager shunned by her community because of their superstitious attitudes towards women. She flees her hometown and undergoes a journey of self-discovery that is wild and introspective. While the novel is set in the late 19th century, the issues North explores through her character development of Ada are the same issues that women and American society grapple with today. Thus, North’s novel is both a literary adventure and a meaningful critique of our contemporary world.

Plot Summary

The year is 1895, and 17-year-old Ada has the perfect life in Fairchild, a conservative Christian town in the American West. She is married to a lovely boy from a nice family. She is learning how to midwife from her well-respected mother. Though she doesn’t know her father, Ada has younger sisters and a loving mother. Her life seems complete, until she fails to get pregnant. Fairchild is reeling from a recent epidemic that killed off many children, so procreation is even more important than usual. Ada’s mother knows the potential danger that will come to her daughter if she can’t get pregnant: Barren women are often accused of witchcraft and hanged. Because society at this time doesn’t understand female and male biology, the blame for infertility will fall only on Ada. Her mother sets her up with a man proven to have gotten other women pregnant. Ada has sex with him in secret, hoping to get pregnant and pass it off as her husband’s child. But when her friends suspect that she is sleeping with someone else, the rumors of her infidelity spread quickly. Ada is not only kicked out of her husband’s house, but Sheriff Branch, once a family friend, reveals that she has been accused of witchcraft after a few women in the town miscarry their pregnancies.

Ada’s mother sends her to a convent, where she’ll be safe from arrest. But Ada is frustrated at the convent. She is restless and not fit for the quiet, dutiful life of a nun. The convent does offer something special: Access to books about biology. Ada discovers a book by Mrs. Schaeffer, a midwife from Pagosa Springs, who is on the verge of discovering a scientific reason for women’s infertility. Ada knows that she must get to Pagosa Springs to work with Mrs. Schaeffer. When she presents her idea to the Mother Superior, Ada is informed that she only has two choices: stay at the convent or go to Hole in the Wall. Ada had heard the legends about Hole in the Wall, the desert home of the Gang—a group of nasty men who rob carriages and banks. Why would Mother Superior suggest Ada join such a dangerous group of people?

Ada decides to take her chances with the Gang. A bookseller sneaks her to Hole in the Wall. During the trip, she discovers that there is a sizable bounty on her head. Nonetheless, Ada makes it. She is surprised to find that the Gang is actually a group of women led by the Kid. The Kid, Cassie, Texas, Lo, Agnes Rose, Elzy, and News each have their unique histories and stories, but they all share something: They were thrown out from their communities for their barrenness or fluid sexuality. They allow Ada to stay because of her medical knowledge. They teach her how to ride a horse and shoot a gun. In return, she provides as much medical care as her limited expertise allows. Soon, Ada fully embraces her new life and joins the Gang on their robbing missions.

Everything changes again when Ada is caught stealing a wagon with News and two cowboy associates, Lark and Henry. The Gang busts her out of jail, but not before she falls in love with Lark and is shot trying to escape with him. The Gang allows Lark to stay with them, but the Kid is acting increasingly erratic. Cassie convinces the Kid to spend some time alone away from the group while the Gang implements the Kid’s most ambitious mission yet: robbing the entire contents of the bank in a nearby town called Fiddleback Ranch. With the money, the Gang can buy the town, expanding their territory and community. The robbery is successful, but Lark dies helping the Gang. The death of Lark brings Ada closer to her new sisters, but she can’t get her own family and Mrs. Schaeffer out of her mind.

Dozens of sheriffs descend upon Hole in the Wall to arrest the Gang. But the Gang knows the land better, so they kill all the sheriffs, including Sheriff Branch, who admits to Ada that he used her as a scapegoat for the town’s problems. Wanted posters warning communities about these incredibly dangerous men-women inadvertently advertise an escape route for other women ostracized from their communities. The Hole in the Wall Gang grows as more and more women find them, begging for sanctuary. As Hole in the Wall grows into a town of its own, Ada decides it’s time to find Mrs. Schaeffer. News and Texas help her on the long journey to Pagosa Springs. But when they arrive, they discover that Mrs. Schaeffer was driven out of town three years prior. Ada finds her abandoned health clinic, which still contains all of Mrs. Schaeffer’s notes and equipment. Ada realizes her dream on her own terms. She bids goodbye to the Gang and stays on in Pagosa Springs as the midwife, accomplishing her goal of discovering more about the biology of reproduction.