AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLEROPTIONED 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 ChronicleThe author of … 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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I loved everything about this book – the characters, the sensory-rich settings, the historical detail, the beautiful prose. It was the escape-into-a-book I’ve been hungry for…
Master storyteller Christina Baker Kline is at her best in this epic yet intimate tale of nineteenth-century Australia. I loved this book.
If you’re even slightly fascinated by Australia, this may be just the book for you. I’ve read other books by Australian writers that went into different depths on the early Anglo/prisoners and their endured hardships in settling Australia. The Exiles follows the story of a young pregnant orphaned girl who is falsely accused and sent off to Australia on a slave ship. It is a beautifully written novel that quickly pulls the reader in .(Even though there were Aboriginal people who inhabited Australia for fifty thousand years, in the1840s the British government considered it uninhabited and untamed. Sounds a bit like the settling of the America in the 1700’s.) A very good book.
An easy read with a lot to discuss for book club. It was well researched and interesting as I knew very little about the history of transporting criminals from the UK to Australia. There were two different stories, one about the transported women and one about an Aborigine girl who was “adopted” by a white family. Although interesting, I think the author could have done more and gotten us deeper into the POV of the main characters. And I strongly disliked how one story changed POV characters mid-way through the book. The two stories could have stood alone or have been woven together a bit tighter.
The Exiles follows 3 female prisoners convicted of petty crimes as they make the harrowing journey on a prisoner ship from England to Australia in the 19th century…Back then, Australia had become known as “England’s Gaol’. Baker-Kline’s attention to detail is impressive and she does not shy away from describing the squalid living conditions as well as the degrading treatment the women must endure at the hands of the ship’s rough sailors, and later in an Australian prison. The bonds forged between the women is a testament to how much they can achieve when they work together to overcome oppression. Here, even their small triumphs make us cheer. Exiles is not all doom and gloom however, and the hopeful ending is uplifting. Informative, emotional, shocking and unpredictable, For those who like history and strong women characters – I recommend Exiles.
Excellent research, wonderful depiction of the unfairness of the transport system and the hubris of colonization. Most especially I loved the way the women in the story took care of each other. This is a story of women undergoing hardship in an unfair world and prevailing, and Kline’s world building makes it excellent historical fiction.
I had the great good fortune to interview Kristina on my podcast, It’s Just Historical. We talked about this book, and the astonishing command of craft she had to create such a gripping, absorbing book. I learned a lot about a time period and slice of history I didn’t know before, but more importantly, I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough.
The Exiles is about the early history of Australia. It’s a well researched and beautiful written novel about female friendships and the way women were treated in the mid-1800s. The story is told through the eyes of two female prisoners transported to Australia -Evangeline and Hazel and one Aboriginal girl Mathinna who was taken from her home to live in the capital.
These three women represent different parts of the culture of Australia in this time period. All three of them were treated as less than human – the prisoners were treated terribly. They were poorly fed and made to work hard and Marthinna was put into an entirely different life at the whim of the governor. While life in Australia is punishing and often brutally unfair, it is also, for some, an opportunity: for redemption and a new way of life. The Exiles is a story of grace born from hardship and the bonds of female friendship.
I gobbled this book up in audio. The narrator is fantastic–one of the best I’ve heard. But she had an amazing story and fascinating characters to work with! The journey of these women–educated, uneducated, middle class, poor–desperately scrambling for their lives while also building strong bonds with one another as they are transported to a new world is an a complete page turner. Beautifully written, my attention never flagged. I’m still thinking about them, which is the highest praise I can give.
The Exiles allowed me to explore a part of history about which I knew very little–the transport of convicted felons from England to Australia. When too many men were transported creating an imbalance in Australia, England stepped up the transport of women, even those convicted of very minor crimes. The Exiles follows two such women on their terrifying journey.
I enjoy historical fiction because it opens my eyes to pieces of history that are not always mainstream. I especially appreciate authors who delve so deep into their research that the story truly comes alive and history is made both real and understandable. For me, It is difficult to form an educated opinion or grasp of a situation unless I can “see” it lived out.
I’d always heard references to criminals being sent to Australia to colonize it for Great Britain. This story shows the drama and trauma of how this was done. The way the author interweaves the lives of Elizabeth, Olive, Hazel, Mathinna, and Dr. Dunn is compelling and moving. I felt as if I knew each character and I desperately wanted to help each one.
Thank you, Christina Baker Kline for such a well researched and beautifully told story.
What a wonderful history lesson and beautifully written book.
I have never heard of these ships that took female prisoners from England to Australia to work off their sentences and who were charged with crimes of no consequence such as stealing a spoon.
We meet Evangeline who was a governess accused of stealing a ring that the son of the person she worked for gave her and who suffered through her months in a filthy prison then on the boat to Australia.
We meet Hazel a midwife and girl who knew how to heal with herbs who was on the transport ship with Evangeline, and they became fast friends as Evangeline taught her to read.
The horrible conditions and abuse these women had to endure is appalling, but the friendships made and the closeness of the women on the boat was wonderful.
In another story line, we meet Mathinna who was taken from her family by an aristocrat and his wife to live in their home. They cared nothing about how Mathinna felt to be all alone because they liked to “collect” things.
All three women suffered immeasurably in the lives they led and in situations that are mesmerizing but heartbreaking.
Ms. Kline has done impeccable research and enlightened us about this time in history and had me looking up Mathinna, the prisons, and Hobart Town.
Another outstanding read with beautifully flowing writing and definitely a book you won’t want to miss.
I didn’t want to stop reading and looked forward to returning to the book. 5/5
This book was given to me by the publisher and Book Browse in exchange for an honest review.
A good period novel about the colonization of Australia, including the effects of indigenous people. Somewhat predictable, and I wasn’t keen on how one of the characters dropped out of the narrative, but it definitely held my attention.
Rich in language & love despite depravity & cruelty
This masterpiece will stay with me for a very long time. What an incredible peek into a period of history I’ve never considered. The Exiles is a study of resiliency, forgiveness, and the twists and turns of life’s journey. What we choose to do with the difficult places we can find ourselves in is really up to us. Do yourself a favor and listen to this incredible story. You won’t be disappointed.
This is a dark story about the populating of Australia by Britain and the truth of the way it was handled. I enjoyed the read and learned a lot of historical information from it but it is a tragic story in many ways. Not a light read but worth taking it on.
Masterful writing, often painful to read but worth it. A journey through heartbreak and out the other end to triumph.
compelling
The exiles opened my eyes into the sexism and degradation of women in the 1800’s in England. Women are sent to the penal colonies of Tasmania, for crimes that are less than serious, single women who fall pregnant are cast out of the community and endure horrible hardships and voyages of 4 months to the island. I had little knowledge of these prison colonies and the horrors found there. It is also an uplifting tale of tenacity, kindness perseverance and the kindness of a few- it was a book that stayed with me for a long time and left an impression
We learn details seldom covered in histories of moving “convicts” from England to the new penal colonies of Australia and Tasmania….so much arbitrary cruelty, some memorable heroism. Also brings out treatment of Aborigines as anthropological specimens.