Years ago I read a book by Christina Baker Kline called The Orphan Train. I liked it so much I gave it to my father to read and he liked it too. Now I read another book by the same author titled The Exiles. This story takes place in the 1800's and is about women exiled to Australia or Tasmania as punishment for crimes committed. And also because they had exiled so many men already they needed to provide women to create a settlement that would last. The story starts out with Evangeline, a tutor who is seduced by her employer's son, and is sent to Newgate Prison and later sentenced to transport to Tasmania. Evangeline is the daughter of a deceased Vicar. She is kind and gullible. She meets a younger girl, Hazel, who is exiled to Tasmania for stealing a spoon. Hazel is also kind but not gullible. She is trained in midwifery and how to use herbs for healing. The story of what they went through was incredible. This story means more to me because I have traveled to Tasmania. I have been to Hobart. I toured a museum about the exiles and read their stories. Starving children were exiled for stealing a loaf of bread. Children working in clothing factories were exiled for having a piece of cloth in their pockets. One night we even stayed in a building on a farm where the exiles were housed. I think this is a fantastic book of historical fiction.
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