The Exiles: A Novel
AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
OPTIONED FOR TELEVISION BY BRUNA PAPANDREA, THE PRODUCER OF HBO'S BIG LITTLE LIES
"A tour de force of original thought, imagination and promise ... Kline takes full advantage of fiction -- its freedom to create compelling characters who fully illuminate monumental events to make history accessible and forever etched in our minds." -- Houston Chronicle
The author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Orphan Train returns with an ambitious, emotionally resonant novel about three women whose lives are bound together in nineteenth-century Australia and the hardships they weather together as they fight for redemption and freedom in a new society.
Seduced by her employer's son, Evangeline, a naïve young governess in early nineteenth-century London, is discharged when her pregnancy is discovered and sent to the notorious Newgate Prison. After months in the fetid, overcrowded jail, she learns she is sentenced to "the land beyond the seas," Van Diemen's Land, a penal colony in Australia. Though uncertain of what awaits, Evangeline knows one thing: the child she carries will be born on the months-long voyage to this distant land.
During the journey on a repurposed slave ship, the Medea, Evangeline strikes up a friendship with Hazel, a girl little older than her former pupils who was sentenced to seven years transport for stealing a silver spoon. Canny where Evangeline is guileless, Hazel--a skilled midwife and herbalist--is soon offering home remedies to both prisoners and sailors in return for a variety of favors.
Though Australia has been home to Aboriginal people for more than 50,000 years, the British government in the 1840s considers its fledgling colony uninhabited and unsettled, and views the natives as an unpleasant nuisance. By the time the Medea arrives, many of them have been forcibly relocated, their land seized by white colonists. One of these relocated people is Mathinna, the orphaned daughter of the Chief of the Lowreenne tribe, who has been adopted by the new governor of Van Diemen's Land.
In this gorgeous novel, Christina Baker Kline brilliantly recreates the beginnings of a new society in a beautiful and challenging land, telling the story of Australia from a fresh perspective, through the experiences of Evangeline, Hazel, and Mathinna. While life in Australia is punishing and often brutally unfair, it is also, for some, an opportunity: for redemption, for a new way of life, for unimagined freedom. Told in exquisite detail and incisive prose, The Exiles is a story of grace born from hardship, the unbreakable bonds of female friendships, and the unfettering of legacy.
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Community Reviews
Methinna, an Aboriginal girl who is adopted by the governor's wife to be essentially a talking pet, rounds out our group. At 11, she's old enough to be somewhat independent, which is good, since no-one exactly takes care of her. But she learns French and learns how to dance, and is generally considered a marvel of civilization, until, suddenly she isn't. Unfortunately, she learns the hard way that you can't go home again, although in her case, it's as much to do with the depredations of the British on the Aboriginal way of life than with anything she does.
Evangeline and Hazel are well-realized characters, although in some ways they are mere stand-ins for the idea that women had no power in that era. But they fill that role more than adequately, not being shy with their desire to be treated with common decency. Methinna's inclusion in the novel is more curious, as her story barely intersects the other, and her impact on their lives isn't as dramatic as it could be, or vice versa. It almost seems as though Kline felt she couldn't write a story taking place in Australia at the time without including an Aboriginal voice, a sentiment which I applaud, but I don't think she does that voice much justice here. For a fully-told plight of women prisoners sent to the colony, I recommend this book. For the same of the Aboriginals, one might want to look elsewhere.
A note on the audio: Narrator Christine Lee does a competent job with her narration, with one major flaw. Two of the characters are described as being quite young, and their youth is such a character trait that it is mentioned repeatedly throughout the narrative. Unfortunately, Lee's doesn't modulate her voice to reflect that youth, and I constantly had to remind myself that they were both young girls.
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