WRJ Book Club
Friday, September 25 at 10:00 am 

Please join the WRJ/Sisterhood Book Club in The Temple Fishman Library for interesting discussions. On Friday September 25, we will meet at 10:00 am to discuss The Exiles by Christina Baker Kline. Amazon praises this book about three women whose lives are bound together in nineteenth-century Australia and the hardships they weather. “Seduced by her employer’s son, Evangeline, a naïve young governess in London, is discharged when her pregnancy is discovered, sent to notorious Newgate Prison, and ultimately sentenced to … a brutal British penal colony in Australia.

During the journey on a repurposed slave ship, Evangeline strikes up a friendship with young Hazel, sentenced to seven years for stealing a silver spoon. Hazel – a skilled midwife and herbalist – offers home remedies to prisoners and sailors in this powerful story of survival. Many Aboriginal people were forcibly relocated, their land seized by white colonists including Mathinna, the orphaned daughter of the Chief of the Lowreenne tribe.

In this gorgeous novel, Christina Baker Kline brilliantly tells the story of Australia, through the experiences of Evangeline, Hazel, and Mathinna. Told in exquisite detail and incisive prose, The Exiles is a story of grace born from hardship, and the unbreakable bonds of female friendships.”

Everyone is welcome to attend our meetings. We offer the option of Zoom, if you are unable to join us in person. Please contact Susan Waterman at susan.waterman1@gmail.com with questions, comments, suggestions for future book selections, or to receive the Zoom link.