I have loved so many of Christina Baker Kline’s novels, but this is my instant new favorite. Can’t wait to see it fly!

Christina Baker Kline has given us a wonderfully researched and fascinating look at the mid 1800s when British convicts were sent to a penal colony just off the coast of Australian on an island now known as Tasmania. Kline focuses primarily on three women: Evangeline, a naive governess impregnated by the stepson of her British employer who is falsely accused of theft; Hazel, a 16 year old trained as a midwife who was turned out by her drunken mother and arrested for stealing a silver spoon; and Mathinna, an orphanned Aboriginal child taken in as an experiment by the Governor's wife to see if she can be "civilized." All of these characters will face treachery and danger in their search for a new life.

Much to discuss in this fast-paced novel which is sure to become a book club favorite!

In The Exiles, Christina Baker Kline takes on the displacement and abuse of the Aboriginal Australians, and the use of convict labor to build the British colony. The story centers on Evangeline, a young governess accused of stealing an heirloom from her employer, who finds herself unwed, pregnant, and in prison. She is chosen for transport to Van Diemen’s Land, the Australian penal colony, with a sentence of fourteen years of labor. While on the ship, she befriends Hazel, a young woman sentenced to seven years of labor for stealing a silver spoon. Where Evangeline is naive, Hazel’s experiences have left her cynical. Fortunately for Evangeline, Hazel learned folk remedies and midwifery from shadowing her mother.

While Evangeline and Hazel are being transported, orphaned Matthina is forced to leave her tribe to live with the British governor of the colony as his wife’s newest pet project. Treated as another part of the family’s collection of curiosities, Matthina remains invisible until the lady of the house wants to put her on display as a successful reformation project for her friends. Matthina’s story line was the most disappointing part of this book. I think that Kline may have better served all of her protagonists by giving Matthina her own novel and focusing exclusively on Evangeline and Hazel’s saga in this book. Matthina is certainly an exile, but using her experience as a foil for the other characters doesn’t give her the space she deserves.

Overall, The Exiles is good but not great historical fiction. Once I adjusted my frame of reference from modern expectations of imprisonment to imprisonment in the 1840s, there weren’t many surprises hiding in the plot. The writing itself occasionally felt a bit overdone. That all being said, it was a nice change of pace from some of the more traditional eras of historical fiction, and I appreciate that there was at least an attempt to address the forcible relocation of the Aboriginal Australians.

The Exiles by Christina Baker Kline is an excellent work of historical fiction that takes place in the 1800s in Australia and England. It revolves around the life of several woman who, for the most part, were unjustly sent to a horrible prison in Australia where they experienced abuse in every form. It is also the story of an aboriginal young girl who is caught in the wilds and sent to live with an English family of distinction. She is stripped of her family and surroundings in order to be paraded around and shown to other upper class English citizens. How the females that are sent to prison and Mathinna cross paths is part of the magic of this novel. One of the prisoners that is sent to the Australian Prison has been unfairly accused of stealing a ruby ring that in fact was given to her by a secret admirer. She is also pregnant by this Secret admirer who is an English aristocracy. He is away on holiday when she is unjustly arrested and sent away. She is now alone on a ship in horrific conditions pregnant with her first child. The author’s writing makes it seem as if you, the reader, are part of the story. The reader can use all the descriptions that are given in order to paint a realistic picture of the horror that takes place in this prison and the inhumane treatment that some of “higher class” give to “lower class” citizens. This is also a story of redemption and triumph. The reader will learn a vast amount about the 1800s in Australia and England. I loved the characters and the storyline of this novel. It was almost sad when it was over! I would like to thank Christina Baker Kline, Harper Collins Publishers, and netgalley for allowing me the pleasure of reading this book in exchange for a fair and honest review .

This novel was hard to put down and such a valuable read. It told of the lives of women convicted by English courts on whims for the crime of living disadvantaged lives. The characters and their experiences are well-drawn and carry the story and experience. Our experience as women today isn't easy, but women like the characters Baker Kline drew are why we have moved so far. I love to read about strong women and this was so well written that it gave me all that I had hoped for and more. One aspect was left dangling, but perhaps the character Mathinna, the aboriginal daughter of a chieftain is a story needing to be written. Indigenous people worldwide have lost their culture and identity at the hands of colonists. This novel is memorable and deserves a place on your to-read pile,

I selected this title as a follow up to my reading "The Immortal Irishman" by Tim Egan. The Exiles dove deeper into the world of the English underclasses being humiliated, dehumanised, and finally physically ejected from English society. I was especially intrigued by the feminist point of view. The characters were well written and interesting. The time period was captured without being too laden with detail as some historical fiction can be. But the ending seemed too pat, too rushed. And I very much feel that the storyline which followed the single native woman just disappeared.

Well written novel that explores the horrors of early British social policy of transportation of people’s to what was to become Australia. Harsh sentences, harsh voyages, and years of harsh treatment and degradation for, sometimes, very minor offenses. One of the storylines is about an aboriginal child, my only disappointment was that this storyline is not more developed.

If you liked Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline like I did, you'll want to read The Exhiles as well. I totally got caught up in the lives of Evangeline, Hazel, and the orphaned Aboriginal girl Mathinna. This is a beautiful but heart-breaking story. I loved learning the history of this time and it's made me want to research more of it.

Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review.

Oh, I loved this book. From the first page to the last, I was completely mesmerized in Evangeline and Hazel's stories. I love that Christina Baker Kline explores time periods and events that are new to me. I have already shared my feelings about The Exiles on our library's Facebook page, urging people to place it on hold now.

Oh, thank you for allowing me to read such a terrific book!

This moving, well-researched, historical fiction about Australia during its early days of colonization was a book I just couldn't put down. The stories of Evangeline, Hazel, and Olive - all women convicts transported half a world away - and Mathinna, an indigenous girl whose people were forcible removed from their land, had me spell-bound.

Ms. Baker Kline knows how to weave a story while introducing readers to many historical moments they may not be very aware of. The characters are well-rounded and the settings are depicted beautifully.

My thanks to Custom House/Harper Collins and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

As a rabid ran of Orphan Train, I waited with anxious anticipation for Christina Baker Kline’s next book. I devoured The Exiles in two sittings. To me, quality historical fiction must have factual roots and be as educational as it is entertaining. Ms Kline meets theses requirements with her latest book.

This story of three young women’s horribly oppressed lives during the 1840s was an engaging and rather depressing read. After being found guilty of separate crimes, Evangeline and Hazel were transported from Britain to Australia to serve their sentences and Mathinna was a young Aboriginal girl, taken from her home to basically become a museum piece for the local governor and his wife.

The story of transported women was not new to me, but the historical treatment of Australia’s Aboriginal people was, and it was horrid. History frequently neglects the women’s perspective and I appreciate any opportunity to read about this.

The only fault I found with this book is that the thread connecting Mathinna with the others was very incidental and not developed well. In fact, Mathinna seems to become an afterthought in the book. Her story felt like a useful plot line to describe a part of history and then she was cast aside as no longer useful. Granted with all the trials and tribulations each woman faced, maybe it was better that we were spared reading any more misery.

If the current state of our part of the world is weighing heavily on you, read something else for now. Do put it on your “To Read” shelf for brighter times. If reading about the dire plight of others, puts your current situation in perspective, read it now. Either way, it is worth your time.

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins for this eARC in exchange for an unbiased review.

The Exiles gives us a very real look at the colonization of Australia, the treatment of Aboriginal Australians, the harsh treatment of "criminals" from the time period, and cruel treatment of women in the 19th century. A quick read and very engaging.

The book was clearly very well researched, and deals with a time and place unusual for US published historical fiction., the transportation of convicts from England and Ireland to Australia.
I tend to read for plot and character, and I found the book a bit slow moving. However, I think it could be a good book for the right reader. If you like very detailed historical fiction, and have a strong stomach for the realities of 18th century prison life, this may be your book. It also has touches of romance and some unexpected plot twists. Review from a publisher supplied egalley. #LJDayofDialog

This historical fiction book begins in 1840 in Tasmania when Mathinna, an Aboriginal child, was taken from her stepfather to live with the British Governor and his wife. About the same time, Evangeline, a young governess in London, was accused of stealing a ring that had been given to her by the adult son of her employer. Evangeline reacted to the accusation by pushing another servant down the stairs. So she was tried and sentenced to 14 years imprisonment in Tasmania. She and several other women were loaded onto a former slave ship for the 4 month trip to Australia.

Evangeline was pregnant by the son who gave her the ring but he was on holiday when she was arrested and knew nothing about the pregnancy.

Evangeline made two friend on the journey but she also made an enemy of one of the sailors, a former ex convict. Soon after she gave birth onboard to a daughter, she was killed by that sailor. So Hazel, one of Evangeline’s friends, colluded with the ship’s doctor to have the child listed as her own before the trip arrived in Tasmania.

The story goes on to explain about conditions in women’s prisons in Australia and how it was possible to work outside the prison as well as earn an early release if the prisoner’s skills were in demand by local people.

The Governor’s wife’s efforts at turning Mathinna into a cultured child were successful as the girl learned to speak English and French fluently as well as subjects taught to other British children. However Mathinna soon found herself forgetting about her heritage and dead parents.

The author has done extensive research into British convicts’ transport to Australia and what life was like for them after they arrived from halfway across the globe. It seems that after the import of convicts ended in 1868, the Australian people worked to forget this sordid part of their national heritage. They are less willing to talk about the inhuman people treatment of the Aboriginal people as well. Today 20% of the Australian population are descendants of convicts from Britain. The Australian Aboriginals comprise 3.3% of the population today even though they were the only inhabitants of the Australian continent when the British arrived.

History buffs as well as those who are interested in learning about women’s struggles, will find this a good read. Anyone else looking for a good story will enjoy it as well.

I received this ARC from the publisher and Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.

An interesting premise, to be sure. I didn't know anything about any of the historical aspects of this book--the sending of English convicts to Tasmania in the mid 1800s and the forcible removal of Australian aborigines from their homes for the sake of civilizing them. Or, in the case of this book, keeping them as a fun trinket to show off, until the novelty wears off and then kicking them to the curb. Fascinating, cruel, and shockingly true. The problem is that it's almost too much hardship and brutality, like the author wanted to be sure the reader was sufficiently horrified. While I understand that Kline is telling us what happened historically, so many bad things happening to every character constantly made it feel mechanical and contrived somehow. It cheapened and degraded the storytelling feel that a novel like this needs. It felt manufactured and without any real heart.
I also couldn't believe the characters of this novel. They never became real enough for me to care about them. It feels too much like they are made up characters just to move the story along instead of allowing them to come to life and tell the story themselves.

Seduced by her employer’s son, Evangeline, a naïve young governess in early nineteenth-century London, is discharged when she is accused of stealing a gift that was given to her by the son and also pushes a mail down the steps. She is discovered 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, 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. 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. Many of them have been relocated and 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. Christina Baker Kline tells of a new society in a beautiful and challenging land, telling the story of Australia from the perspective and experiences of Evangeline, Hazel, and Mathinna. I almost finished this book in one day as I could not put it done as the the author's descriptions and obvious research kept me entranced.

I loved Orphan Train by the same author so jumped at the chance when it was offered as an ARC by the publisher on NetGalley.

Christina Baker Kline’s THE EXILES is an engrossing and significant work of historical fiction. Upon a meticulously researched setting of female British convicts sent to Australia, Baker Kline tells the stories of three women who left few traces: Mathinna, an Aboriginal girl who is taken on a whim from her family and community to be cultivated by a British woman who fancies herself a scholar of indigenous cultures; Evangeline, an orphaned young English woman with neither financial means nor practical skills, impregnated by the stepson of the family for whom she serves as governess, and subsequently arrested for stealing a ring her gave her; and Scottish Hazel, the teenage daughter of a drunken midwife, convicted for stealing a silver spoon. Evangeline and Hazel’s fated friendship on the convict ship leads to Hazel’s eventual encounters and poignantly fleeting friendship with Mathinna in a manor home. It is in the novel’s moving and deeply satisfying epilogue that we finally see, one generation later, a confrontation of the injustice and cruelty to which Evangeline was subject that set her story in motion. With timely historical context on the treatment of convicts, granted no due process, no voice, and few means of recovering from the injustices visited upon them, this novel is a testament to the endurance and ingenuity of women in the face of inequality and systemic marginalization.

The Exiles is truly a work for these times, about the abuse of power and how the voices of the less powerful will not be ignored. Original, meticulously researched, and perfectly crafted. One of the best books I've read all year.

The Exiles is told from four points of view. Each one is a strong female character facing difficult hardships from a very young age. Mathinna is a native who is forced to leave her land at the whim of of the English Governor and his wife, hoping to save the "savage" by educating her. Evangeline is the daughter of a minister working as a governess. She falls for the son of her employer and is accused of murder. We meet Hazel on the Medea, the wooden ship Evangeline is also sailing on. The two are sentenced to prison time in Australia for their crimes. Lastly, we have Ruby, Evangeline's daughter who was born aboard the Medea. The author describes the circumstances in which the character finds themselves in with great care and depth. The reader begins to care about their events in their lives and empathize with their situation. Also, one learns about the treachery and injustices women in the 1840's lived through if they were accused of a crime, especially if they were poor and uneducated.

The Exiles
A Novel
by Christina Baker Kline
HarperCollins Publishers
You Like Them You Are Auto-Approved
Custom House
General Fiction (Adult) | Literary Fiction

Great book for book clubs. Good story!
5 star