Scan barcode
A review by book_concierge
The Exiles by Christina Baker Kline
3.0
Digital audiobook performed by Caroline Lee
3.5***
Historical fiction that looks at the issues of “transport” wherein women convicted of crimes were sent to Australia territories to “work off” their sentences. Kline also deals with the issues surrounding colonialist’s treatment of the indigenous population, with the story of Mathinna, the orphaned daughter of an Aboriginal chief, who is taken in by the new governor of Van Diemen’s Land (now known as Tasmania).
Evangeline, a governess in a “respected household”, is arrested on a trumped-up charge when her pregnancy is discovered. Hazel, a skilled midwife and herbalist who has had to live by her wits from a young age, is arrested for stealing a silver spoon. Hazel is canny and a seasoned survivor, while Evangeline is naïve despite her education, and unprepared for motherhood. On the journey aboard a former slave ship the unlikely pair form a friendship.
Meantime, Mathinna is being educated to be shown off to the governor’s associates as a “triumph” of Western education and values. She is little more than a living doll to the governor’s wife. But she never loses sight of her origins.
Eventually these two storylines intersect. The treatment these women endured was brutal and dehumanizing, but Kline’s characters band together to support one another and triumph. I was interested from beginning to end, and learned a bit more about this episode in history.
Caroline Lee does a fine job of narrating the audiobook. There are a lot of characters to handle and she was up to the task.
3.5***
Historical fiction that looks at the issues of “transport” wherein women convicted of crimes were sent to Australia territories to “work off” their sentences. Kline also deals with the issues surrounding colonialist’s treatment of the indigenous population, with the story of Mathinna, the orphaned daughter of an Aboriginal chief, who is taken in by the new governor of Van Diemen’s Land (now known as Tasmania).
Evangeline, a governess in a “respected household”, is arrested on a trumped-up charge when her pregnancy is discovered. Hazel, a skilled midwife and herbalist who has had to live by her wits from a young age, is arrested for stealing a silver spoon. Hazel is canny and a seasoned survivor, while Evangeline is naïve despite her education, and unprepared for motherhood. On the journey aboard a former slave ship the unlikely pair form a friendship.
Meantime, Mathinna is being educated to be shown off to the governor’s associates as a “triumph” of Western education and values. She is little more than a living doll to the governor’s wife. But she never loses sight of her origins.
Eventually these two storylines intersect. The treatment these women endured was brutal and dehumanizing, but Kline’s characters band together to support one another and triumph. I was interested from beginning to end, and learned a bit more about this episode in history.
Caroline Lee does a fine job of narrating the audiobook. There are a lot of characters to handle and she was up to the task.