The Exiles

The Exiles by Christina Baker Kline
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I read The Exiles because of my previous reading of Kline's work. I honestly knew nothing about The Exiles, and so I was surprised to find myself reading about Australia in the 1840s when Great Britain was still sending their convicts there to work and help populate the country. I had no idea that Great Britain did that, so the story took on an added layer of complexity as I tried to wrap my head around first a seven year sentence for a minor crime and then having that sentence essentially become a life sentence because of being sent halfway around the world. Though the overall book is not something I would normally gravitate towards, the writing is good and the storylines compelling. The book mostly feels like a tragedy as the injustices faced by the convicts and the Aborigines are based on real events (though the characters are not real). That said, like Jean Val Jean's story in Les Misérables and others like that, there are moments of triumph where you can't help but root for the character's and their chance at a normal life despite all their hardships.

In short, if The Exiles sounds interesting, read it. It's worth your time.

Happy reading--

ps. And happy learning. I am continually stunned at how much history I am unaware of despite being actively interested in historical topics.