Western fiction has a long and rich history – one ripe for reinvention and subversion. Here are six of our best recommendations for novels that do exactly this.

Outlawed by Anna North

Ada feels lucky – she loves her broad-shouldered husband and her job as an apprentice midwife. But after a year of marriage with no pregnancy, in a town where barren women are hanged as witches, Ada has to flee. She joins up with the notorious Hole in the Wall Gang, a safe haven for women and non-binary people outcast from society. This rugged and revisionist Western is set in an alternative America of 1894 after a flu epidemic has decimated the population.

How Much of These Hills is Gold by C. Pam Zhang

During the Gold Rush, two siblings carry the dead body of their father on their backs, looking for a place for a burial, among giant buffalo bones and tiger paw prints. Once Lucy and Sam have made it out of the wild, they are changed forever. Sam chooses to live in their father’s shadow, while Lucy breaks free. Taking their own paths in the American West, each either sidesteps or falls victim to the new gods of greed, wealth and opportunism. This is a sweeping adventure tale, an unforgettable sibling story and a remarkable novel about family, bound and divided by its memories.

Inland by Téa Obreht

Nora is a brittle and unflinching frontierswoman. Awaiting the return of the men in her life, she bides her time with her youngest son, who is convinced that a mysterious beast is stalking the land around their home, and her husband’s seventeen-year-old cousin, who communes with spirits. Lurie is an outlaw; haunted by ghosts and relentlessly pursued by the law, he’s on the run with his trusty steed who happens to be a camel. Mythical, lyrical, and gripping, Inland is grounded in true but little-known history.

The Drover’s Wife by Leah Purcell

Deep in the heart of Australia’s high country, lives Molly Johnson and her four surviving children, another on the way. Husband Joe is away months at a time droving livestock up north, leaving his family in the bush to fend for itself and life is hard with only their dog, Alligator, and a shotgun for protection – but it can be even harder when Joe’s around. Then one night, under the moon’s watch, Molly has an unexpected visitor – a black ‘story keeper’, Yadaka. Building on her award-winning play that re-imagined Henry Lawson’s famed short story, Leah Purcell has crafted a masterful tale of Australia’s pioneering past.

The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt

Hermann Kermit Warm is going to die. Across 1000 miles of Oregon desert his assassins, the notorious Eli and Charlies Sisters, ride: fighting, shooting, and drinking their way to Sacramento. But their prey isn’t an easy mark, the road is long and bloody, and somewhere along the path Eli begins to question what he does for a living – and whom he does it for. Adapted for the screen in 2018, this black and bawdy comedy Western is a tour de force.

The Searcher by Tana French

Retired detective Cal Hooper moves to a remote village in rural Ireland, planning to put his old police instincts to bed forever. Then a local boy appeals to him for help. His brother is missing, and no one in the village, least of all the police, seems to care. Something is wrong in this community, and Cal must find out what, even if it brings trouble to his door. Tana French has woven a masterful tale of breathtaking beauty and suspense, asking what we sacrifice in our search for truth and justice – and what we risk if we don’t.