The Break: British Book Awards Author of the Year 2022

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Though it would be remiss of me not to mention I highly admire Vermette for the incredible amount of respect and empathy she has for all her characters.

I felt that Katherena Vermette handled the violence well and is so well written that I didn't feel sensitive towards it at all. A little girl who has four younger brothers and sisters, who won’t stop crying, and a big, cold house, which is falling to bits, and a dad who can’t cope.For once I’m not going to share those reflections on societal power structures, the difference between the life experiences of the poor and working class compared with those of the wealthy and privileged, whether monogamy is a learned behaviour that not everyone can be bothered to learn and that’s only seen as problematic by society when those who don’t want to commit to life with one partner are from the disadvantaged end of the social spectrum, and why we’re all so hung up about being single, because the subject matter of the novel is so harrowing as to make my thoughts seem trite. There are a lot of characters to keep track of here but with the help of an illustration of the family tree I didn’t have too much trouble keeping track of all the characters involved. Stella (third generation), alone at home with her infant children witnesses a gang rape going on outside her window and is helpless to break it up or render assistance to the victim.

It was necessary for me, as a Canadian, to read a story about my country from a perspective that is different than my own. A violent crime occurs in a small community that is an offshoot of the Métis Nation (in Manitoba, Canada. Zu Beginn fällt es schwer, sich einen Überblick zu verschaffen - da kann ich nur empfehlen, den Stammbaum am Ende des Buches im Blick zu behalten. This was the book that should have won Canada reads, my apologies to André Alexis, but this was the book that could help to heal Canada. Fiction is capable of helping us to comprehend difference and otherness, and The Break offers clear insight ino people struggling to secure a place in the world.

In part one, we meet seven characters, mostly members of the Charles/Traverse family: Stella, Emily, Phoenix, Louisa (Lou), Cheryl, Zegwan (Ziggy) and Tommy, one of the police officers who interview Stella. Beautiful book with some very easy recipes with barely more than six ingredients and others with six stages that are more elaborate but still fun to put together.

At the front of the book there is a "TRIGGER WARNING: This book is about recovering and healing from violence. The officers have different opinions on the information they get from Stella - the older assuming it's just gang violence, and the younger sensing that something more vicious has taken place. We also learn about the casual racism he encounters within his relationship with his white fiancée and how he covers over the way it makes him feel. The Break refers to a piece of land between two rows of houses which is outside the home of Stella a young Métis mother who witnessed a violent act on the Break. It’s a book that explores social issues without ever preaching, or even seeming to be about them at all.

Due to that, I, unfortunately wasn’t all that invested in the characters as much as I would have liked. Crimes involving "Nates" (natives) are ho-hum, routine occurrences to Officer Christie, Scott's older, white, police partner. Vermette is skilled at writing with a language that is conversational and comfortable and with a poetic ease that makes the hard things easier to swallow. While the story centers around this horrible crime, it is not a mystery novel, as it is clear to the reader who the perpetrator is early on.