The Break

katherena vermette’s novel, The Break, was published in Canada in 2016 and the United States in 2018. The author, who grew up in Winnipeg—the setting of the novel—is part of the Métis Nation, and she focuses her writing on themes related to Indigenous people in Canada and the Northern United States. The Break has won several awards including the Governor’s General Literary Award and Burt Award for First Nation, Inuit, and Métis Literature.

The Break focuses on the story of a multigenerational family who must learn to navigate their past while also enduring the aftermath of a crime committed against one of their youngest members. Each chapter presents a different perspective through a third-person omniscient narrator or first-person narration, depending on the character. The novel explores themes of intergenerational trauma, justice, and dealing with the prejudices against Indigenous communities. The novel focuses heavily on the racism that Indigenous people face while also providing commentary on the plight of women in North America.

This guide refers to the House of Anansi paperback edition published in 2018.

Content Warning: This novel contains graphic scenes of sexual and physical violence, along with descriptions of addiction, self-harm, and racist language against Indigenous people.

Plot Summary

The Break begins with Stella, a young mother, who witnesses a violent crime outside of her home on the outskirts of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. The area referred to as “the Break” is a barren, isolated field outside of her home that houses hydro towers and surrounds a couple of neighborhoods. Stella, who fears for her children’s safety, calls the police to report the rape of a woman, but one of the two police officers of a higher rank does not take her witness statement seriously. When departing Stella’s home, the younger police officer, Tommy, is determined to investigate the violent crime. As the novel progresses, the narrator reveals that the crime that Stella witnesses was the sexual assault of the daughter of her cousin Paulina, Emily.

As one of the youngest members of the Charles/Traverse family, Emily grows up around multiple women, such as her Aunt Lou, grandmother, Cheryl, and great-grandmother, Kookom. At 13, Emily and her best friend, Ziggy, attend a party without knowing that it is hosted by a local gang in the area. Despite being apprehensive to go, Ziggy goes to the party to keep an eye on Emily, but the two end up getting assaulted by a group of older teenage girls. Ziggy and Emily are separated during the assault; the older teenage girls, including an orphan named Phoenix, beat up Ziggy and sexually assault Emily with a beer bottle. After the assault, Emily worries that someone will discover her and walks home despite having broken glass inside her. Ziggy, who attempts to find Emily, goes home, and her mother, Rita, sees Ziggy’s battered face the next morning. They go to the local hospital and discover that Emily has been sexually assaulted.

While the novel unravels the events of the assault against Emily, the women in the Charles/Traverse family attempt to reconcile with their own past and experiences. Kookom acts as the matriarch of the family, but, in her old age, she is in a battle with her health. Paulina worries for her daughter while also attempting to navigate her relationship with her boyfriend, Pete. After spending years trying to learn how to trust men due to her own experiences of sexual assault as a child, Paulina wants to trust that Pete truly loves her, but she doubts his motivations for being with her. Lou, her sister, who is abandoned by her long-term boyfriend, also struggles to trust men because she experienced sexual violence alongside Paulina. Cheryl, their mother, constantly reflects on her past of losing her sister, Rain (Stella’s mother), and tries to overcome an addiction to alcohol as she attempts to take care of her family.

Alongside this family, Tommy and Phoenix attempt to navigate their own lives and traumas as they face discrimination from the white population. After running away from a juvenile detention center, Phoenix craves to find a family even though she has lost both her sisters; she lost Cedar-Sage to the foster care system, and Sparrow died while Phoenix was in the center. Their mother, Elsie, has a drug addiction, and Phoenix resents her for being absent in their time of need. For Tommy, he actively wants to serve his community as a police officer, but he faces discrimination for being part of the Métis Nation from fellow police officers and even his girlfriend, Hannah. As Tommy unravels his understanding of the world around him, he also reflects on his past of growing up with an abusive father with an alcohol addiction who ridiculed his mom for being Indigenous.

By the end of the novel, Tommy arrests Phoenix for the crime that she committed, and she goes to a woman’s prison, where she must await her sentencing and come to terms with a pregnancy. Kookom passes away, and Cheryl takes her family to Indigenous lands to undergo a sweating (a traditional ritual of several Indigenous cultures in which attendees take part in a spiritual ceremony in a heated structure called a sweat lodge) in an effort to cleanse themselves from the past and reconnect with their culture.