Gorgeous, sweeping historical novel about women convicts seeking refuge and freedom set in the nineteenth century England and Australia. ~ ALWAYS WITH A BOOK | WEDNESDAYS WITH WRITERS ~ HISTORICAL FICTION SPOTLIGHT Thanks.A powerful, emotionally resonant novel that captures the hardship, oppression, opportunity and hope of four women’s lives-three English convicts and an orphaned Aboriginal girl-in nineteenth-century Australia. Please feel free to use them, online and off, with attribution. What did you learn about the settlement of Australia that you hadn't known previously? All good historical fiction engages us with real history: it brings the past alive and puts it in the context of living (albeit fictional) human beings-and so we learn. Considering the cruelty, hardships, and death in this novel, did you find sections difficult to read at times? If you made it through to the end, why did you persist? What drove you to overcome those painful parts to reach the novel's conclusion? And if you reached the end, was it satisfying?ħ. What is Lady Franklin's actual purpose in bringing Mathinna into her household? What are her true feelings toward Australia's indigenous peoples?Ħ. In an outward show of grace and charity, Lady Franklin has adopted Mathinna, a young Aboriginal girl. What is Hazel's background and the reason she is sent to Australia?ĥ. In light of the questions above, apply the same topics to Hazel, whom Evangeline meets on the ship. Describe the conditions-the hardships-Evangelina experienced both in Newgate Prison and on the months-long journey to Australia.Ĥ. Would her life have been as precarious as Evangeline's?ģ. Consider, also, that Austen, like Evangeline, was herself the daughter of a clergyman. ( Follow-up to Question 1) For fun, consider the disparity between the worlds of The Exiles and, say, Jane Austen's novels, which took place a couple of decades decades before the setting of this novel. How does her treatment reflect the stature of women in the 1840s-in what was then (along with France) the most civilized country in the world?Ģ. Talk about the reasons Evangeline is first sent to prison and then to the penal colony of Australia. We'll add publisher questions if and when they're available in the meantime, use our LitLovers talking points to help start a discussion for THE EXILES … then take off on your own:ġ.

Author christina baker kline