The Break

The Break, an international bestseller, is the first in Katherena Vermette's heart-rending, utterly immersive Indigenous family saga that includes The Strangers and The Circle. Now available in B-format with a series tie-in cover.

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. But when they arrive, no one is there; scuff marks in the compacted snow are the only sign anything may have happened.

What follows is a powerful tale of a community in crisis as people who are connected, both directly and indirectly, with the victim—police, family, and friends—tell their stories leading up to that fateful night.

Through their various perspectives, a larger, more comprehensive story about the lives of the residents in Winnipeg's North End is exposed.