The Exiles

 This is another fabulous book written by Christina Baker Kline, author of Orphan Train and A Piece of the World.   

This time she has created an amazing plot based on real life experience using fictional characters, but just as powerful.  When the young governess is discharged and sent to debtor's prison we see the worst side of British history.  Following this young girl who, through ignorance and naive trust, faces a life she could never have imagined, we learn about the prison system and unfairness to women in 1840s London.  

Evangeline has led a sheltered life, in a small village as the vicar's daughter.  When her father passes on, she is left to fend for herself at the young age of 20 years old.  She answers an advertisement for a nanny and heads out into the world of sophisticated London.  Wooed by the young gentleman of the house she is working in she is fooled into believing he has the same feelings for her she has developed for him.  When the lady of the house has her arrested and no one comes to her defense she is once again on her own but this time so much worse off.

At this time prisoners are being shipped to Australia to start a new British colony there.  After serving their prisons sentences working hard, people are able to start their lives there, building families and working.  We learn so much about "Van Diemen’s Land", a penal colony in Australia., which was populated for Britain by prisoners sent by boat to inhabit and start businesses and families there.  

Evangeline and the people she meets along the way, some are kind and helpful and some are mean and uncaring.  Some are just downright evil.  Sometimes life throws curves in your way and it is how prepared to deal with them and who assists you along the way that can make all the difference.

An incredibly well written and powerful plot that will stay with you long after you close the book.

So much history for us all still to learn.