Shifting perspectives
Hannah and Paula McLain.
Her composer son scored a book trailer. A video on Kline’s research into the history behind her fiction is featured. And her sons will sing an Australian sea shanty.
Of course, we wondered: Will there be wine?
“There will definitely be wine,” Kline says, laughing. “Unquestionably. Or maybe a gin and tonic. I think gin is more of the convict’s drink.”
Christina Baker Kline will chat with fellow authors online Wednesday about “The Exiles,” whose protagonist is transported from Victorian England to Australia after a conviction.
fact, ‘Orphan Train’ is a 300-page novel or something, and two-thirds of it takes place in the present day,” Kline says. “I didn’t even think of that as a historical novel — I was always surprised when people said it was.”
Her interest in historical settings grew, though the stories were never stories stuck in the past.
“For me, the whole goal of writing about the past is making the novels feel contemporary,” she says. “I want to write stories that people fall into. That they feel that they’re immersed in, not that you’re seeing through some kind of sepia, you know, sentimental scrim.”
“The Exiles” begins with Evangeline but shares its perspective with Hazel, a Scottish teen convict, and Mathinna, an Aboriginal Tasmanian child who is removed from her people and forced to live with the territorial governor upon a whim of his wife.
“As I was tackling this story, this research, it’s such a big story,” Kline says. “How do I find a way in that feels intimate? And so I created the character of Evangeline as sort of a stand-in for the reader. She herself is literate. She’s a governess. She’s a fish out of water, doesn’t have anything to do with this world. Every single thing that happens to her is a fresh shock to her system.
“And then I sort of envisioned the novel as a passing of the baton from one woman to the next,” she says. “So Hazel to me was the perfect next step because she has lived in this world forever. She has this sort of superpower, this skill that she can use to barter for other things. She knows how to
heal people. She also knows how to use medicine for ill. And she’s very scrappy — she’s really street smart.”
Evangeline is pregnant by her former employer’s son, who gave her the ring she was accused of stealing, when she meets Hazel on the transport ship, a journey during which a shocking event occurs.
“George R.R. Martin said when he was writing those ‘Game of Thrones’ books that he wanted to create a world in which nothing is certain, and anything can happen,” Kline says. “And when I was researching ‘The Exiles,’ I was struck by how true that was for the convict women. They had been thrust into this world where, as I said, anything could happen and did.”
Chapters from Evangeline’s and Hazel’s perspectives are joined by those told by Mathinna, a real-life figure whose story was the most challenging for Kline to write, she says.
“I didn’t want to be accused of appropriation, but I ultimately felt it would be irresponsible not to address the story,” Kline says of the treatment of Aboriginal people within their native country.
“She’s actually pretty famous in Australia because she’s come to represent what happened to the Tasmanian people, and her real-life story was terrible and tragic.”
A party and more
“The Exiles” is in development for a limited series with Made Up Stories, the production company of Australian producer Bruna Papandrea, who in a long collaboration with Reese Witherspoon successfully adapted for film and TV books such as
“Big Little Lies,” “Gone Girl” and “Wild.”
“I’m really excited about it,” says Kline, an executive producer on the project.