Read – Page 799 – What Cathy Read Next…

Welcome to today’s stop on the blog tour for The Exiles by Christina Baker Kline. My thanks to Anne at Random Things Tours for inviting me to take part in the tour and to one of my favourite publishers, Allison & Busby, for my digital review copy via NetGalley.

Do check out the post by my tour buddy for today, Shaz at Jera’s Jamboree. Plus, you can listen to Christina reading an extract from The Exiles below.

About the Book

London, 1840. Evangeline, pregnant and falsely accused of stealing, has languished in Newgate prison for months. Ahead now lies the journey to Australia on a prison ship. On board, Evangeline befriends Hazel, sentenced to seven years’ transport for theft. Soon Hazel’s path will cross with an orphaned indigenous girl. Mathinna is ‘adopted’ by the new governor of Tasmania where the family treat her more like a curiosity than a child.

Amid hardships and cruelties, new life will take root in stolen soil, friendships will define lives, and some will find their place in a new society in the land beyond the seas.

Format: Hardcover (352 pages) Publisher: Allison & Busby
Publication date: 22nd October 2020 Genre: Historical Fiction

Find The Exiles on Goodreads

Purchase links*
Publisher | Amazon UK | Hive (supporting UK bookshops)
*link provided for convenience not as part of an affiliate programme

My Review

The Exiles is my first introduction to the writing of Christina Baker Kline. My first impression is of being immersed in the sights, sounds and (unfortunately) smells of whatever scene she’s describing, whether that’s the crowded cells of Newgate Prison or the fetid orlop deck of a prison ship. The horrific conditions Evangeline endures alongside the other female convicts aboard the Medea are vividly described and, for me, was the standout section of the book.

A light in the darkness is Evangeline’s meeting with Hazel which will prove significant, not only because of Hazel’s midwifery skills but also her future role as guardian angel. And, it transpires, she’s not the only guardian angel on board.

The experiences of Evangeline and Mathinna could feel like two self-contained storylines but the author skilfully brings them together through Hazel once the action moves to Hobart in Van Diemen’s Land (what is now Tasmania). But there are also neat little connections, such as William Shakespeare’s The Tempest, as well as broader themes of identity and the silencing of the female voice. For example, Evangeline is identified only by a number once she boards the prison ship but her silencing starts earlier even than that when she is forbidden to speak for herself upon her admission to Newgate Prison. Mathinna is renamed Mary and forbidden to speak in her native tongue; instead she is trained to speak French as an amusing display for Lady Franklin’s visitors.

Having recently read the wonderful Paris Savages by Katherine Johnson, the attitude to and treatment of the indigenous people of Australasia was not a surprise but it was no less shocking for all that. Mathinna’s “adoption” by Sir John and Lady Franklin is an example of the worst kind of misguided paternalism. She becomes part of their experiment in “civilizing” the indigenous people of Tasmania, completely dismissing the value of their culture and way of life. As Mathinna comes to realize, she is “just another piece of the Franklins’ eccentric collection, alongside the taxidermied snakes and wombats“.

In the final chapter of the book, things comes satisfyingly full circle with the prospect of a better, more enlightened future; a fitting legacy for the countless women who suffered so much. The Exiles is an engrossing story of injustice, hardship, loss and overcoming adversity.

In three words: Immersive, dramatic, emotional

Try something similar: Fled by Meg Keneally

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Christine Baker Kline by Beowulf Sheehan — The writer Christine Baker Kline (USA), New York, New York, January 28, 2020. Photograph © Beowulf Sheehan

About the Author

Christina Baker Kline is the author of seven novels, including the #1 New York Times bestseller Orphan Train, an international bestseller published in 40 countries and with over 3.5 million copies in print. Her essays, articles and reviews have appeared in the New York Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, Money, More, and Psychology Today, among other publications. She lives in New York City and on the coast of Maine. The Exiles has been optioned for TV by the producer of Big Little Lies.

Connect with Christina
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On What Cathy Read Next last week

Blog posts

Monday – I published my review of The Last of the Wine by Mary Renault, the book I read for the recent #1956Club.

Tuesday – This week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic was Books I Read Because Someone Recommended Them and although I could have filled a dozen lists with books I’ve been recommended by other book bloggers, I chose to focus on books nominated for The Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction.

Wednesday – It wouldn’t be “hump day” without WWW Wednesday, the opportunity to share what I’ve just read, what I’m currently reading and what I plan to read next…as well as have a good nose around to see what other bloggers are reading.

Thursday – I published my review of Endless Skies by Jane Cable as part of the blog tour.

Friday – I introduced my Buchan of the Month for October, The Free Fishers by John Buchan.

Saturday – I published my review of The Wild Silence by Raynor Winn.

As always, thanks to everyone who has liked, commented on or so shared my blog posts on social media.

New arrivals

A whole bundle of treats this week!

Winterkill (Dark Iceland #6) by Ragnar Jónasson (eARC, courtesy of Orenda Books)

Easter weekend is approaching, and snow is gently falling in Siglufjörður, the northernmost town in Iceland, as crowds of tourists arrive to visit the majestic ski slopes. Ari Thór Arason is now a police inspector, but he’s separated from his girlfriend, who lives in Sweden with their three-year-old son. A family reunion is planned for the holiday, but a violent blizzard is threatening and there is an unsettling chill in the air.

Three days before Easter, a nineteen-year-old local girl falls to her death from the balcony of a house on the main street. A perplexing entry in her diary suggests that this may not be an accident, and when an old man in a local nursing home writes ‘She was murdered’ again and again on the wall of his room, there is every suggestion that something more sinister lies at the heart of her death…

As the extreme weather closes in, cutting the power and access to Siglufjörður, Ari Thór must piece together the puzzle to reveal a horrible truth … one that will leave no one unscathed.

Chilling, claustrophobic and disturbing, Winterkill marks the startling conclusion to the million-copy bestselling Dark Iceland series and cements Ragnar Jónasson as one of the most exciting authors in crime fiction.

The Second Sleep by Robert Harris (paperback, courtesy of Bookmarks UK)

All civilisations think they are invulnerable. History warns us none is.

1468. A young priest, Christopher Fairfax, arrives in a remote Exmoor village to conduct the funeral of his predecessor. The land around is strewn with ancient artefacts – coins, fragments of glass, human bones – which the old parson used to collect. Did his obsession with the past lead to his death?

As Fairfax is drawn more deeply into the isolated community, everything he believes – about himself, his faith and the history of his world – is tested to destruction.

The Stasi Game (Karin Müller #6) by David Young (eARC, courtesy of Zaffre via NetGalley)

A man’s body is found buried in concrete at a building site in the new town district. When People’s Police homicide captain Karin Müller arrives at the scene, she discovers that all of the body’s identifiable features have been removed – including its fingertips.

The deeper Müller digs, the more the Stasi begin to hamper her investigations. She soon realises that this crime is just one part of a clandestine battle between two secret services – the Stasi of East Germany and Britain’s MI6 – to control the truth behind one of the deadliest events of World War II.

337 by M. Jonathan Lee (ARC, courtesy of Hideaway Fall)

337 follows the life of Samuel Darte whose mother vanished when he was in his teens. It was his brother, Tom who found her wedding ring on the kitchen table along with the note. While their father pays the price of his mother’s disappearance, Sam learns that his long-estranged Gramma is living out her last days in a nursing home nearby.

Keen to learn about what really happened that day and realising the importance of how little time there is, he visits her to finally get the truth. Soon it’ll be too late and the family secrets will be lost forever. Reduced to ashes. But in a story like this, nothing is as it seems.

The Prophets by Robert Jones, Jr. (proof copy, courtesy of Quercus)

A singular and stunning debut novel about the forbidden union between two enslaved young men on a Deep South plantation, the refuge they find in each other, and a betrayal that threatens their existence.

Isaiah was Samuel’s and Samuel was Isaiah’s. That was the way it was since the beginning, and the way it was to be until the end. In the barn they tended to the animals, but also to each other, transforming the hollowed-out shed into a place of human refuge, a source of intimacy and hope in a world ruled by vicious masters. But when an older man – a fellow slave – seeks to gain favour by preaching the master’s gospel on the plantation, the enslaved begin to turn on their own. Isaiah and Samuel’s love, which was once so simple, is seen as sinful and a clear danger to the plantation’s harmony.

Madam by Phoebe Wynne (proof copy, courtesy of Quercus)

Light a fire they can’t put out…

For 150 years, above the Scottish cliffs, Caldonbrae Hall has sat as a beacon of excellence in the ancestral castle of Lord William Hope. A boarding school for girls, it promises a future where its pupils will emerge ‘resilient and ready to serve society’.

Rose Christie, a 26-year-old Classics teacher, is the first new hire for the school in over a decade. At first, Rose feels overwhelmed in the face of this elite establishment, but soon after her arrival she begins to understand that she may have more to fear than her own ineptitude. When Rose stumbles across the secret circumstances surrounding the abrupt departure of her predecessor – a woman whose ghost lingers over everything and who no one will discuss – she realises that there is much more to this institution than she has been led to believe.

As she uncovers the darkness that beats at the heart of Caldonbrae, Rose becomes embroiled in a battle that will threaten her sanity as well as her safety…

The Final Revival of Opal & Nev by Dawnie Walton (proof copy, courtesy of Quercus)

A poignant fictional oral history of the beloved rock ‘n’ roll duo who shot to fame in the 1970s New York, and the dark, fraught secret that lies at the peak of their stardom.

Opal is a fiercely independent young woman pushing against the grain in her style and attitude, Afro-punk before that term existed. Coming of age in Detroit, she can’t imagine settling for a 9-to-5 job – despite her unusual looks, Opal believes she can be a star. So when the aspiring British singer/songwriter Neville Charles discovers her at a bar’s amateur night, she takes him up on his offer to make rock music together for the fledgling Rivington Records.

In early seventies New York City, just as she’s finding her niche as part of a flamboyant and funky creative scene, a rival band signed to her label brandishes a Confederate flag at a promotional concert. Opal’s bold protest and the violence that ensues set off a chain of events that will not only change the lives of those she loves, but also be a deadly reminder that repercussions are always harsher for women, especially black women, who dare to speak their truth.

Decades later, as Opal considers a 2016 reunion with Nev, music journalist S. Sunny Shelton seizes the chance to curate an oral history about her idols. Sunny thought she knew most of the stories leading up to the cult duo’s most politicized chapter. But as her interviews dig deeper, a nasty new allegation from an unexpected source threatens to blow up everything.

Provocative and chilling, The Final Revival of Opal & Nev features a backup chorus of unforgettable voices, a heroine the likes of which we’ve not seen in storytelling, and a daring structure, and introduces a bold new voice in contemporary fiction.