Winner of the Amazon.ca First Novel Award and a finalist for the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize and the Governor General’s Literary Award, The Break is a stunning and heartbreaking debut novel about a multigenerational Métis–Anishnaabe family dealing with the fallout of a shocking crime in Winnipeg’s North End.
When Stella, a young Métis mother, looks out her window one evening and spots someone in trouble on the Break — a barren field on an isolated strip of land outside her house — she calls the police to alert them to a possible crime.
In a series of shifting narratives, people who are connected, both directly and indirectly, with the victim — police, family, and friends — tell their personal stories leading up to that fateful night. Lou, a social worker, grapples with the departure of her live-in boyfriend. Cheryl, an artist, mourns the premature death of her sister Rain. Paulina, a single mother, struggles to trust her new partner. Phoenix, a homeless teenager, is released from a youth detention centre. Officer Scott, a Métis policeman, feels caught between two worlds as he patrols the city. Through their various perspectives a larger, more comprehensive story about lives of the residents in Winnipeg’s North End is exposed.
A powerful intergenerational family saga, The Break showcases Vermette’s abundant writing talent and positions her as an exciting new voice in Canadian literature.
Authors:
KATHERENA VERMETTE (she/her) is a Red River Métis (Michif) writer from Treaty 1 territory. Her father’s roots run deep in this land, dating back over two centuries, and her mother’s side is Mennonite.
Vermette received the Governor General’s Literary Award for Poetry for her first book, North End Love Songs, and wide acclaim for her second collection of poems, river woman. The Break, a novel, won many awards including the Amazon.ca First Novel Award, and was a bestseller in Canada. She holds an MFA from the University of British Columbia.
Born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Katherena lives with her family in a cranky old house within skipping distance of the temperamental Red River.