The Break

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

When Stella, a young Metis 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.