List $49.99

Written by Diana Gabaldon - Audio book performed by Davina Porter - Unabridged Fiction - 28 COMPACT DISCS - 32.5 hours

Publisher, Recorded Books (April 2006)

Outlander, Diana Gabaldon’s landmark novel of Scottish lore has captured the hearts of millions of readers around the world and catapulted her to the top of the New York Times best-seller list. Intrigue, danger and desire merge in this lush novel of loyalty and time travel. In 1945, Claire Randall, a former combat nurse, is back from the war and reunited with her husband on a second honeymoon. Their blissful reunion is shattered when she touches a boulder in one of the ancient stone ruins and is instantly transported to a Scotland torn by war and raiding border clans … in 1743. Will Claire find her way back to her own time, or is her destiny forever linked with Clan MacKenzie and the gallant James Fraser? Davina Porter’s lyrical narration will launch listeners into an exhilarating world of heroism, pulse-pounding adventure, and breathtaking romance as one woman is torn between past and present, passion and love.

About the Author: As a rule, someone with a Masters degree in marine biology, a PhD in quantitative ecology, a university teaching position, and free-lance work for computer magazines and for publications like Disney comics isn’t looking for more to do.

Diana Gabaldon has not gotten to where she is in life by following the rules. A New York Times-bestselling author, she writes books that fit into existing categories about as neatly as she does.

Which is to say, not at all.

Outlander is part romance and part science fiction time-travel adventure, part fantasy and part sweeping historical epic. It was purchased by a publisher even before Gabaldon had finished the manuscript in her “spare time” between teaching, writing, and family duties. The novel introduced readers to Claire Randall, a woman with a husband in one century, and a lover in another.

“I merely wanted to write a novel to learn how,” Gabaldon explains of the series’ genesis. “So I said, ‘All right, what’s the easiest kind of novel you could write, since this is just for practice?’ And it seemed to me that the easiest sort of novel might be a historical novel.” With her strong background in educational research and an extensive college library at her disposal, Gabaldon found the historical period she would use in a way that once again defied expectations: through a very old re-run of the campy British science fiction series, Dr. Who. “This character [on the show] wore a kilt,” Gabaldon says. “And I thought that rather fetching.”

Though she has had to endure some muttering from second-guessers about everything from her first-person point of view to having a female protagonist older than her lover, Gabaldon’s success backs up her assertion that “‘the rules’ are whatever works.” She notes that “there is nothing stopping a book that uses the assorted conventions of one or more of the genres from being both original and of high literary merit.” She adds that popular classics such as Moby Dick and Gone with the Wind tend to occur “when the elements of good story-telling combine with originality and good writing.”

As unconventional as her career has been in so many ways, Gabaldon attributes much of her success to a very conventional “rule”: “I work like a dog. How the heck would anybody else do it?” She offers some rules of her own to aspiring novelists, which she’ll expound upon in detail in a nonfiction book of essays she’s compiling: “1) Read, 2) Write, 3) Don’t Stop!”

Her legions of readers and listeners are hoping Diana Gabaldon will never stop revisiting the characters and situations she has created in her Outlander series. And Recorded Books listeners have been particularly impressed with Davina Porter’s readings of the books. A reviewer in Kliatt commented, “I’ve previously read [Outlander], but Porter’s reading made the story more exciting and atmospheric. Her English narrative voice, her Scottish burr, and her English regional accents are phenomenal ... This is an outstanding matching of story and reader; long but accessible to any reader.”

About the Performer: Davina Porter divides her time between theater work, her family, and the Recorded Books studio. Born in London, her four children are now grown and two are pursuing career in the United Kingdom. Davina spends each summer at the Vineyard Playhouse on Martha’s Vineyard, where she enjoys her theater roles, in plays such as Lettice and Lovage, and the venerable old resort town. She is also Chairman of the Board of the Westport, Connecticut Community Theater, where she has been an active member for many years.

In addition to her work in the Vineyard and Westport, Davina Porter’s acting career has taken her to theaters in Boston, New York City, and Fairfield University as Artist in Residence. She has received critical acclaim for her roles in plays that range from light comedy like Bedroom Farce to the moving Agnes of God.