The Break

Category: Book
By (author): Vermette, Katherena
Subject:  FICTION / Canadian
  FICTION / Literary
  FICTION / Native American & Aboriginal
Publisher: House of Anansi Press Inc
Published: September 2016
Format: Book-paperback
Pages: 288
Size: 8.00in x 5.25in
Our Price:
$ 23.99
Availability:
In stock

Additional Notes

From The Publisher*

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.

From The Publisher*A stunning and heartbreaking debut novel by Governor General's Literary Award–winning Métis poet Katherena Vermette about a multigenerational Métis–Anishnaabe family dealing with the fallout of a shocking crime in Winnipeg's North End.
Review Quote*Vermette is a staggering talent. Reading The Break is like a revelation; stunning, heartbreaking and glorious. From her exquisitely rendered characters to her fully realized world and the ratcheting tension, I couldn't put it down. Absolutely riveting.
Review Quote*The narrator of this story is dead. He misses feeling the skin of others, but he likes being about memory. It's who we are siem. Katherena Vermette rendered the women of the North End gorgeous in her poetry: North End Love Songs. In The Break, she renders them sweet, beautiful battlers who love under the most horrific of circumstances. She points no fingers, just plots the story, person by person, memory by memory, until it is clear that we must give up the feeling of hopelessness that haunts the lives of these women. The Break is itself a beautiful love song of desire to live a full and rich life as cherished women - even when we cannot have that. We can hope. Resilient as the star world from which they arise these women reconcile with their lives without giving in to the horrors they have faced. Vermette captures the reader from beginning to end. She creates unforgettable characters with honor, respect and a deft hand. In so doing she holds the reader's tender love in her capable hands and weaves us right into the story. The Break is unforgettable.
Review Quote*The lives of the girls and women in The Break are not easy, but their voices - complex, urgent, and unsparing - lay bare what it means to survive, not only once, but multiple times, against the forces of private and national histories. Katherena Vermette is a tremendously gifted writer, a dazzling talent.
Biographical Note

Katherena Vermette is a Métis writer of poetry, fiction, and children's literature. In addition to winning the Governor General's Literary Award for Poetry, her first book, North End Love Songs, is the 2015 selection for Manitoba's provincial book club, On the Same Page. Vermette has recently been shortlisted for the inaugural Beatrice Mosionier Aboriginal Writer of the Year Award. Her work has appeared in literary magazines and anthologies across the globe. She holds a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia, and lives in Winnipeg, Manitoba.